FROM  THE  LIBRARY  OF 

REV.  LOUIS  FITZGERALD  BENSON.  D.  D. 

BEQUEATHED  BY  HIM  TO 

THE  LIBRARY  OF 

PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


Section 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/churchmusicwhatmOOIore 


What  a  Minister  Should 
Know  About  It 


By 

EDMUND  S.  LORENZ 

Author  of  “ Practical  Church  Music" 

Editor  of  "  The  Choir  Leader"  and  “  The  Choir  Herald" 


WITH  FOREWORD  BY 


CLELAND  B.  McAFEE,  D.D. 

Professor  of  Systematic  Theology ,  McCormick  Theological 
Seminary ,  Chicago ,  III. 


“  The  way  of  the  philosopher  is  not  mine  ;  I  care  only 
for  that  which  is  good  for  the  churchy  and  tends  to 
the  advancement  of  our  little  ones." 

— Guido  of  Arezzo  (995-1055  a.d.) 


New  York  Chicago 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


and 


Copyright,  1923,  by 

FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  North  Wabash  Ave. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh :  75  Princes  Street 


Foreword 


By  Cleland  Boyd  McAfee,  D.  D. 

Professor  of  Systematic  Theology,  McCormick 
Theological  Seminary 

THE  writer  of  this  book  needs  no  introduction 
on  his  own  account.  His  earlier  writings  and 
his  widely-known  service  of  the  musical  needs 
of  choirs,  and  his  ministerial  training  and  experience, 
have  prepared  him  in  a  peculiar  sense  to  speak  to  the 
ministry  on  the  subject  of  Church  Music.  But  the  book 
itself  breaks  a  new  path  in  that  it  makes  it  possible  for 
a  minister  actually  to  do  what  other  books  urge  him  to 
do — namely,  to  know  music  as  a  minister  needs  to  know 
it.  The  writer  holds  out  no  hope  of  making  musicians 
out  of  all  ministers,  but  he  does  provide  a  way  whereby 
any  minister  may  become  intelligent  and  appreciative  in 
his  responsibility  as  leader  of  the  whole  life  of  the  church. 

Of  no  part  of  that  life  is  the  average  minister  more 
shy  than  of  its  musical  phases.  Particularly  has  it  been 
impressed  upon  many  ministers  that  the  organ  and  solo 
parts  of  musical  worship  are  beyond  their  reach.  Indeed, 
many  ministers  merely  endure  such  elements  in  the  daily 
worship  as  necessary  magnets  to  draw  congregations  to 
hear  the  sermon !  Hence  comes  the  curious  custom  of 
calling  all  that  precedes  the  sermon  “  preliminary  serv¬ 
ices,”  ministers  often  complaining  that  they  occupy  so 
much  time  that  the  people  are  in  no  mood  for  worship. 
Yet  there  would  seem  to  be  no  proper  place  in  the  entire 
service  hour  for  anything  that  does  not  serve  the  purposes 

5 


6 


FOREWORD 


of  worship  quite  as  truly  as  the  sermon  itself.  The 
weakness  of  the  situation  is  generally  in  a  lack  of  appre¬ 
ciation  of  the  worship-value  of  these  other  elements  of 
the  order  of  the  hour. 

Some  years  ago  a  professor  of  homiletics  in  a  leading 
theological  seminary,  knowing  my  own  interest  in  the 
music  of  worship,  asked  me  to  lecture  to  his  class.  Nat¬ 
urally,  my  counsel  was  in  favour  of  intelligent  participa¬ 
tion  in  this  part  of  church  life.  At  the  close  of  the 
lecture,  the  professor  good-naturedly  advised  the  class  to 
forget  as  much  as  possible  of  what  I  had  said  on  the 
subject  and  to  keep  their  hands  off  of  the  music;  other¬ 
wise  there  would  be  trouble.  He  asked  how  they  would 
like  to  have  the  organist  interfering  with  their  preaching ; 
“  you  do  your  business  and  let  him  attend  to  his !  ” 

It  was  a  curious  survival  of  the  notion  that  intelligence 
involves  interference.  Most  ministers  wish  the  organist 
did  take  a  little  more  intelligent  interest  in  their  preach¬ 
ing;  and  the  shortest  path  to  that  needed  change  will  be 
for  interest  and  intelligence  to  begin  at  the  pulpit  end. 

But  unintelligent  interest  is  almost  worse  than  none. 
A  minister  who  boasts  that  he  knows  only  two  tunes, 
“  one  of  them  is  ‘  Old  Hundredth’  and  the  other  isn’t,”  is 
matched  by  the  minister  who  declares  that  he  does  not 
pretend  to  know  anything  about  music,  but  he  “  knows 
what  he  likes.”  There  are  some  kinds  of  music  that 
nobody  ought  to  like  for  the  purpose  of  worship.  But 
there  is  no  use  in  saying  that  unless  one  is  prepared  to 
point  out  what  makes  music  worshipful  or  even  musical. 

Such  knowledge  is  possible  for  all  except  the  rare 
physically  defective  persons  and  possibly  those  who  have 
been  encouraged  too  long  in  an  early  obsession  against 
music.  Even  obscure  hearing  is  no  bar  to  effective  in¬ 
terest  in  both  hymnology  and  the  use  of  tunes.  Dr. 


FOREWORD 


7 


Theodore  L.  Cuyler  was  for  many  years  so  deaf  that  he 
could  not  tell  when  his  large  choir  had  ceased  singing,  as 
they  sat  behind  him  and  he  could  not  see  them  rise  and 
sit  again.  Yet  he  prided  himself  justly  on  his  discrimina¬ 
tion  in  the  use  of  hymns  suited  to  his  congregation  and 
the  purposes  of  worship.  He  .could  sense  the  effect  of 
certain  tunes  on  his  audience  and  refused  to  use  them. 
His  organist  for  many  years,  Dr.  John  Hyatt  Brewer, 
wrote  a  new  setting  to  one  of  the  best-known  hymns  in  the 
English  language  because  Dr.  Cuyler  refused  to  accept 
the  widely-used  tune ;  “  It  sounds  like  the  squawk  of  a 
dying  duck,”  he  said.  And  all  the  while  his  deafness  was 
notorious,  but  so  was  his  persistent  study  of  hymns  and 
tunes. 

Yet  the  material  for  the  correction  of  this  defect  in 
ministerial  knowledge  has  been  so  scattered,  or  so  little 
wrought  out,  that  no  book  has  hitherto  been  available  for 
a  student  of  the  subject.  So  the  service  has  gone  forward 
under  its  bifurcated  leadership — preaching  and  praying 
and  Scripture  going  one  way,  and  organ  and  anthem  and 
hymn  going  another  way,  both  groups  of  worshipful  ele¬ 
ments  hoping  to  do  good,  but  often  cancelling  each  other. 

Meanwhile,  it  is  the  minister  who  has  the  final  re¬ 
sponsibility.  Generally  he  does  not  know  so  much  about 
the  technique  of  music  as  his  helpers  in  that  field,  and  he 
need  not  try  to  know  so  much;  but  he  needs  to  know 
what  such  a  book  as  this  will  teach  him  so  that  his  own 
life  will  be  enriched  and  so  that  his  total  ministry  will 
be  widened.  It  will  enable  him  to  unify  the  service  of 
worship,  making  the  organist  a  fellow-helper  in  ministry, 
the  anthem  and  hymn  intelligible,  the  whole  realm  of 
music  a  home  land.  Suggestions  of  a  great  history  are 
here,  with  paths  opening  out  into  the  future  for  coming 
leaders. 


8 


FOREW^  ORD 


As  one  minister  whose  thirty-five  years  of  service  have 
been  constantly  blessed  by  the  musical  elements  of  wor¬ 
ship,  I  welcome  the  chance  to  bear  testimony  to  the 
beneficent  influence  of  such  study  and  knowledge,  I  com¬ 
mend  it  to  my  brethren  of  the  pulpit,  the  choir-gallery, 
and  the  pew,  and  I  rejoice  in  this  volume  which  makes 
such  study  feasible  and  pleasant. 

Chicago ,  III . 


Preface 


IN  preparing  “  Practical  Church  Music,”  some  years 
ago,  the  writer  supposed  he  had  made  his  full  con¬ 
tribution  to  the  musical  development  and  efficiency 
of  the  ministers  of  the  American  churches.  Although 
not  intended  nor  adapted  to  that  purpose,  it  has  been 
used  as  a  text-book  in  some  theological  seminaries. 

Its  deficiencies  for  that  use  have  led  to  frequent 
suggestions  that  the  writer  prepare  a  text-book  that 
should  meet  the  needs  of  seminary  classes  in  church 
music.  Owing  to  these  calls  and  his  realization  of  the 
utter  lack  of  proper  text-books,  he  has  felt  under  obliga¬ 
tion,  in  spite  of  his  busy  life  in  other  lines  of  music  and 
business,  to  serve  the  church  by  aiding  its  coming  min¬ 
isters  to  prepare  themselves  for  the  musical  responsibili¬ 
ties  that  await  them  and  that  they  cannot  honourably 
evade. 

The  subject  is  too  large  that  any  one  volume  should 
contain  the  needed  matter  pertaining  to  all  phases  of  it. 
Hence  only  the  things  a  minister  should  know  about 
church  music  are  here  treated.  Practical  efficiency  in 
church  music, — the  how  to  do  things — must  be  left  to  a 
subsequent  volume  which  the  writer  hopes  to  prepare  in 
the  near  future.  A  third  volume  devoted  to  methods  of 
efficiency  in  the  use  of  hymns  in  the  church  service  would 
box  the  compass  of  the  theological  student’s  musical  and 
liturgical  needs. 

While  the  need  of  seminary  classes  has  been  to  the 
fore  in  the  preparation  of  this  volume,  the  author  has 
not  been  forgetful  of  the  minister  already  in  the  field, 

9 


10 


PEEFACE 


who  feels  his  musical  limitations  and  who  is  desirous  of 
enlarging  the  scope  of  his  musical  culture  and  activities. 
The  organization  of  the  material  for  class  use  should  be 
of  service  to  him  instead  of  a  handicap. 

It  should  be  said  that  considerable  material  has  been 
taken  bodily  from  the  writer’s  previous  book,  “  Practical 
Church  Music,”  with  only  such  changes  as  a  closer  organ¬ 
ization  of  the  matter  and  added  information  made 
necessary. 

No  apology  is  offered  for  the  practical  rather  than 
academical  spirit  pervading  this  treatise,  nor  for  the  un¬ 
usual  recognition  accorded  to  the  music  of  the  people. 
To  properly  aid  the  aggressive  and  efficient  pastor  this 
seemed  imperatively  necessary. 

The  writer  has  been  cheered  and  encouraged  in  his 
work  by  the  hearty  approval  given  it  by  representatives 
of  a  number  of  theological  seminaries.  He  is  par¬ 
ticularly  grateful  to  Prof.  Cleland  B.  McAfee,  D.  D.,  of 
McCormick  Theological  Seminary,  not  only  for  his 
genial  and  helpful  “  Foreword,”  but  for  his  constant  en¬ 
couragement,  and  especially  for  his  admirable  exempli¬ 
fication,  through  his  many  years  of  most  efficient  work  as 
a  pastor,  of  the  added  service  adequate  musical  training 
and  alert  interest  in  the  musical  part  of  the  church  service 
can  render. 

Appreciative  mention  should  also  be  made  of  Rev. 
Prof.  Herman  von  Berge,  formerly  professor  in  the 
Rochester  German  Theological  Seminary,  who  by  inci¬ 
dental  suggestion  and  criticism  and  by  careful  proof-read¬ 
ing  has  been  very  helpful. 

Again  I  am  under  obligations  to  Mr.  Charles  Stebbins 
of  Dayton,  Ohio,  for  suggestions  and  information  regard¬ 
ing  the  pipe  organ  which  could  be  secured  only  from  a 
competent  organ  architect. 


PREFACE 


11 


Class  Room  Suggestions 

Some  suggestions  regarding  the  use  of  this  treatise  in 
the  class  room  may  be  useful. 

The  plan  of  the  book  has  been  based  on  the  fact  that 
there  are  thirty  working  weeks  in  the  theological  seminary 
year.  It  was  assumed  that  no  seminary  would  find  an 
additional  hour  each  week  a  serious  burden  either  for  the 
professor  or  the  student.  This  volume  could  be  assigned 
to  the  course  of  the  Junior  year.  The  two  succeeding 
volumes  may  be  taken  in  the  later  two  years  on  the  same 
weekly  basis. 

There  are,  however,  thirty-two  chapters  in  this  volume, 
as  the  author  assumed  that  several  chapters  could  be 
treated  as  mere  reading  chapters  on  which  no  recitation 
was  to  be  expected. 

Instead  of  a  recitation  on  these  reading  chapters,  some 
musical  members  of  the  class  may  be  asked  to  prepare 
resumes  of  their  most  important  matter. 

This  does  not  mean  that  this  schedule  needs  to  be 
rigidly  followed.  If  two  or  three  recitations  each  week 
can  be  provided,  so  much,  the  better,  as  there  will  be 
greater  momentum  and  continuity  of  interest  in  the  sub¬ 
ject. 

The  library  of  the  seminary  ought  to  contain  the  col¬ 
lateral  reading  suggested,  as  but  few  students  can  be 
expected  to  purchase  the  expensive  and  sometimes  rare 
works  referred  to.  This  being  done,  the  outside  reading 
should  be  insisted  upon. 

The  subject  matter  has  been  so  organized  and  the  re¬ 
view  questions  so  formulated  that  the  teacher  does  not 
need  to  be  a  musician.  Very  few  theological  professors 
have  had  so  limited  a  general  reading  in  history,  especially 
church  history,  or  in  general  science  and  art,  that  they 


12 


PREFACE 


cannot  supply  from  their  own  individual  store  illustra¬ 
tive  material  to  vitalize  the  class  room  work. 

It  seems  almost  needless  to  suggest  that  the  review 
questions  are  intended  for  the  student  in  his  study  and 
not  for  the  class  room. 

It  may  be  wise  to  take  two  chapters  for  each  recitation 
in  the  Introduction  and  in  Part  II  and  to  devote  time  so 
gained  to  Chapters  IV,  V,  and  VI,  containing  as  they  do  a 
mass  of  details  of  fundamental  importance. 

Ten  to  fifteen  minutes  of  each  recitation  hour  may  be 
devoted  to  practice  in  reading  music  at  sight,  using  the 
hymnal  in  use  for  that  purpose.  Much  the  better  way 
is  to  have  separate  weekly  meetings  for  musical  practice 
for  ten  or  twelve  weeks  of  the  year  and  to  make  atten¬ 
dance  upon  them  obligatory. 

The  organization  of  quartets  or  of  a  chorus  should  be 
not  only  encouraged  but  urged.  An  atmosphere  of  sacred 
music  should  be  created  by  varying  the  often  rather 
routinary  and  unattractive  daily  chapel  service  with 
volunteer  or  even  professional  numbers,  giving  talent 
among  the  students  the  preference.  Instead  of  confining 
the  congregational  singing  to  the  well-known  tunes,  an 
occasional  chapel  service  could  be  devoted  to  learning 
one  or  two  new  tunes,  shortening  the  Scripture  passage 
and  prayer  somewhat. 

To  keep  up  interest  in  a  weekly  recitation  a  special 
effort  must  be  made  to  avoid  a  merely  mechanical  con¬ 
sideration  of  the  topic  and  to  fill  the  hour  with  fresh  and 
spirited  discussions. 

Further  detailed  class  room  suggestions  appear  as  a 
preface  to  some  of  the  chapters. 

E.  S.  L. 

Dayton,  Ohio. 


Contents 


INTRODUCTION 

I.  Ideas  Underlying  the  Discussion  of 

Church  Music . 21 

I.  The  Point  of  View.  2.  The  Governing  Conception. 

3.  The  Purpose  of  This  Discussion. 

II.  Why  a  Minister  Should  Study  Music  .  28 

1.  Ministerial  Indifference  to  Church  Music.  2.  Musical 
Pastors  Discounted.  3.  Historical  Instances  of  Minis¬ 
terial  Cultivation  of  Church  Music.  4.  Decay  of  Min¬ 
isterial  Interest.  5.  Music  is  an  Important  Part  of 
Church  Work.  6.  Responsibility  for  Music  a  Part  of 
the  Ministerial  Obligation.  7.  The  Duty  of  Praise.  8. 

The  Prominence  of  Music  in  the  Bible.  9.  Modern 
Music  the  Child  of  the  Christian  Church.  10.  The 
Value  of  the  History  of  Church  Music.  11.  Develop¬ 
ment  of  Artistic  Responsiveness.  12.  Music  Develops 
Emotional  Powers.  13.  Sources  of  Illustrative  Ma¬ 
terial.  14.  Social  Value  of  Musical  Training.  15.  Its 
Large  Place  in  Public  Services. 

III.  What  a  Minister  Should  Know  About 

Music . 46 

1.  Knowledge  of  Musical  Notation.  2.  The  Psychology 
of  Music.  3.  History  of  Musical  Development.  4. 

The  Study  of  Great  Individual  Compositions.  5.  For¬ 
mulation  of  Plans  and  Methods.  6.  Study  of  Musical 
Means.  7.  This  Study  Should  be  Practical.  8.  Musical 
Talent  Not  Needed.  9.  The  Real  Difficulty. 

PART  I 

THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 

IV.  The  Physical  Element  in  Musical  Sound  59 

I.  Musical  Sounds.  2.  Variations  of  Vibration.  3.  The 
Overtones.  4.  The  Control  of  Tone  Colour.  5,  The 
Formation  of  the  Scale.  6.  Additional  Scales. 


13 


14 


CONTENTS 


V.  The  Physical  Element  in  Musical  Sound 

(Continued )  ...  .  .  .  .70 

7.  Transposition  of  the  Scales.  8.  Intervals.  9.  The 
Inversion  of  Intervals.  10.  Melody.  11.  Rhythm. 

12.  Form.  13.  Harmony. 

VI.  Musical  Notation . 83 

I.  The  Notation  of  Pitch.  2.  The  Notation  of  Time.  3. 

The  Notation  of  Expression. 

PART  II 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 

VII.  The  Problem  of  the  Character  of  Music  99 

1.  The  Problem  Very  Obscure.  2.  Illustrations  of  Lack 
of  Correspondence  Between  Statement  and  Musical  Ef¬ 
fect.  3.  Physical  Basis  of  Effect  of  Music.  4.  The 
Musical  Effect  not  Limited  to  the  Auditory  Nerve.  5. 

The  Effect  of  Music  not  Limited  to  Sensory  Nerves. 

6.  Difference  in  Musical  Effect  Dppends  on  Physical 
Constitution.  7.  Lack  of  Correspondence  Between 
Musical  Susceptibility  and  Mental  Power.  8.  The  Ap¬ 
parent  Emotionality  of  Music.  9.  Apparently  Emo¬ 
tional  Effect  of  Music  Differs  with  Different  People. 

10.  Music  Often  Merely  Stimulating. 

VIII.  The  Psychology  of  Music’s  Action  .  .112 

I.  The  Immediate  Effect  of  Music.  2.  Music  Affects  the 
Nervous  Tension.  3.  The  Basis  of  Music’s  Mental 
Stimulation.  4.  Physical  Reactions  not  the  Whole  of 
Music’s  Effect.  5.  The  Emotions  and  the  Nerves. 

IX.  Nervous  Correspondence  Between  Music 

and  Emotion  .....  125 

I.  Correspondence  Between  Musical  and  Emotional 
Nervous  Impressions.  2.  This  Correspondence  no 
Mere  Coincidence.  3.  Emotions  Translated  into  Music. 

4.  The  Vagueness  of  Musical  Feeling.  5.  Supplying 
an  Intellectual  Basis  for  Musical  Nervous  Impression. 

6.  Association  of  Ideas  with  Music.  7.  Incongruities 
of  Associated  Ideas.  8.  Prejudices  Due  to  Improperly 
Associated  Ideas.  9.  Spontaneity  in  Music. 

X.  Some  Corollaries  of  Musical  Psychology  i  35 

I.  Music  Has  no  Inherent  Moral  Character.  2.  Music  as 
a  Means  to  an  End.  3.  Music  Must  be  Adapted  to  the 
Nervous  Systems  to  be  Affected.  4.  Three  Essential 


CONTENTS 


15 


Factors.  5.  The  Therapeutic  Value  of  Music.  6.  The 
Distress  Caused  by  Music.  7.  The  Intellectual  Side 
of  Music. 

XI.  Church  Music  as  Applied  Art  .  .  .  147 

1.  Pure  Art  and  Applied  Art.  2.  Music  as  Pure  Art. 

3.  Music  as  Applied  Art.  4.  Music  Applied  to  Relig¬ 
ious  Work.  5.  The  Final  Purpose  of  Church  Music 
Must  be  Understood.  6.  In  Applied  Art  the  Purpose 
is  Preeminent.  7.  Persons  to  be  Religiously  Helped 
Must  be  Considered.  8.  The  Value  of  Adaptation.  9. 
Abstract  Standards  not  Applicable  to  Church  Music. 

10.  Room  for  Divergent  Opinions.  11.  Music  Should 
Express  all  Religious  Emotions.  12.  Conclusions. 

XII.  How  Church  Music  Assists  .  .  .  161 

1.  Music  Applied  in  Five  Religious  Lines.  2.  Music 
Useful  in  Every  Phase  of  Church  Work.  3.  The  Phys¬ 
ical  Effect  of  Religious  Music.  4.  The  Pleasure  Pro¬ 
duced  by  Religious  Music.  5.  Music  Predisposes  the 
Mind  to  Accept  Message.  6.  Organizing  Effect  of 
Music.  7.  The  Process  of  Music’s  Emotional  Prepa¬ 
ration.  8.  Music  as  an  Expression  and  Intensifier  of 
Emotion.  9.  The  Progress  of  Musical  Effect  in  a 
Service.  10.  Substituting  Related  Emotions.  1 1. 
Conclusion. 


PART  III 

THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 

XIII.  The  Origin  of  Music  ....  175 

I.  Study  of  the  Origin  of  Music  Purely  Speculative.  2. 

Music  Innate.  3.  The  Raw  Materials  of  Music.  4. 

The  Birth  of  the  Artistic  Musical  Impulse.  5.  Rhythm 
Took  the  Prominent  Place  Originally.  6.  The  Develop¬ 
ment  of  Melody.  7.  The  Development  of  Rhythm.  8. 

The  Development  of  the  Dance.  9.  The  Development 
of  Musical  Instruments.  10.  Music  Originally  Purely 
an  Applied  Art.  11.  The  Development  of  Religious 
Ritual. 

XIV.  Pre-Christian  Music  .  .  .  .188 

1.  The  Lines  of  Development.  2.  Music  Among  the 
Egyptians,  Assyrians  and  Greeks. 

XV.  Pre-Christian  Music  ( Continued )  .  .  203 

3.  Music  Among  the  Hebrews.  4.  General  Statements 
Regarding  Pre-Christian  Music. 


16 

CONTENTS 

XVI. 

Early  Christian  Music  .... 

213 

1.  Music  in  the  Apostolic  Age.  2.  Music  in  the  Pa¬ 
tristic  Age. 

XVII. 

Church  Music  Under  Papal  Auspices  . 

225 

I.  Early  Papal  Efforts  at  Progress  in  Church  Music. 

2.  The  Gregorian  Reforms  and  Organization  of  Music. 

3.  The  Gregorian  System.  4.  The  Development  of 
Musical  Notation.  5.  The  Introduction  of  the  Grego¬ 
rian  Liturgy  and  Music. 

XVIII.  Medieval  Church  Music  .  .  .  236 

1.  The  Age  of  Musical  Apprenticeship.  2.  The  Growth 
of  Artistic  Purpose.  3.  General  Characteristics  of 
Mediaeval  Church  Music.  4.  The  Effect  of  Mediaeval 
Church  Music  on  Modern  Nerves. 

XIX.  The  Music  of  the  Reformation  .  .253 

I.  Pre-Reformation  Vernacular  Hymns.  2.  The  New 
Hymnology  of  the  German  Reformation.  3.  The 
Place  of  Music  Under  Zwingli  and  Calvin.  4.  Subse¬ 
quent  Development  of  the  German  Chorale. 

XX.  The  English  Psalm  Tune  .  .  .  269 

1.  The  Earliest  English  Church  Music.  2.  The  Psalm 
Tunes. 

XXI.  The  English  Hymn  Tune  .  .  .  281 

1.  The  Transition  from  the  Psalm  to  the  Hymn  Tune. 

2.  Psalmody  and  Hymnody  Compared.  3.  The  Wes¬ 
leyan  Stimulus  to  New  Hymn  Tunes.  4.  The  Rise 
of  Fugue  Tunes.  5.  The  Florid  School  of  Hymn 
Tunes.  6.  The  Modern  Hymn  Tune.  7.  The  Later 
Modern  School.  8.  The  “  Hymns  Ancient  and  Mod¬ 
ern  ”  School.  9.  Present  Tendencies. 

XXII.  New  England  Psalmody  ....  291 

1.  Early  American  Music  Puritan.  2.  Divided  Opin¬ 
ions  Regarding  Psalm  Singing.  3.  New  England 
Psalters.  4.  The  Decadence  of  Congregational  Sing¬ 
ing  and  Efforts  at  Reform.  5.  The  Rise  of  American 
Psalm  Tune  Composers. 

XXIII.  The  American  Hymn  Tune  .  .  .  303 

1.  Transition  from  Psalm  to  Hymn  Tunes.  2.  The 
Reaction  Against  the  Popular  Psalmody.  3.  The 
Practical  Value  of  this  Undesirable  Music.  4.  The 
Organization  of  Musical  Conventions.  5.  The  Pioneer 
Work  of  Thomas  Hastings.  6.  The  Reform  Under 


CONTENTS 


17 


XXIV. 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 


Lowell  Mason.  7.  The  Associates  of  Lowell  Mason. 

8.  The  Close  of  the  American  Hymn  Tune  Epoch.  9. 

The  Characteristics  of  the  American  Tune. 

The  American  Spiritual  .  .  .314 

I.  The  Rise  of  the  American  Spiritual.  2.  Body  of 
“  Spirituals  ”  Lost.  3.  Negro  Melodies  an  Out¬ 
growth.  4.  The  Number  of  “  Spirituals  ”  Large. 

5.  The  Origin  and  Spread  of  Individual  Songs.  6. 

Origin  of  the  Style.  7.  Characteristics  of  the 
“  Spiritual.”  8.  “  Spirituals  ”  Good  Church  Music 
Because  Efficient.  9.  Influence  on  Succeeding 
Movements. 

American  Sunday-School  Music  .  .  328 

I.  The  Earliest  Sunday-School  Song  Books.  2.  A 
New  Style  of  Sunday-School  Music.  3.  A  Modern 
Style  of  Music.  4.  The  Effect  of  the  Gospel  Song. 

5.  The  Super-Modern  Style  of  Sunday-School  Music. 

6.  American  Sunday-School  Music  Abroad. 

The  Gospel  Song  ....  342 

I.  The  Essential  Points  of  the  Gospel  Song.  2.  The 
Gospel  Song’s  Inheritance  from  the  “  Spiritual.”  3. 

The  Originators  of  the  Gospel  Song.  4.  The 
Origin  of  the  “  Gospel  Hymns  ”  Series.  5.  Gospel 
Songs  by  Other  Writers.  6.  The  New  Evangelistic 
Campaigns  and  Their  Songs.  7.  Apparent  Close  of 
the  Gospel  Song  Epoch. 

The  History  of  Motets  and  Anthems  353 

I.  Distinction  Between  Motet  and  Anthem.  2.  The 
Development  of  the  Motet.  3.  The  Development 
of  the  Anthem.  4.  American  Anthems. 

Oratorios  and  Church  Cantatas  .  365 

1.  Oratorio  and  Cantata  Defined.  2.  Origin  of  the 
Two  Forms.  The  Transformation  of  the  Miracle 
Play.  4.  The  Development  of  the  Oratorio  in 
Italy.  5.  The  Oratorio  in  Germany.  6.  The 
Oratorio  in  England.  7.  The  Oratorio  in  America. 

8.  The  French  Oratorio.  9.  The  Passing  of  the 
Oratorio.  10.  The  Church  Cantata  in  America. 

PART  IV 

THE  PIPE  ORGAN 

Description  of  the  Pipe  Organ  .  .  385 

1.  The  Pipe  Organ  an  Exceedingly  Complicated  In¬ 
strument.  2.  The  Key  Desk  or  Console.  3.  The 


CONTENTS 


18 

Great  Organ.  4.  The  Swell  Organ.  5.  The  Choir 
Organ.  6.  The  Solo  Organ.  7.  The  Pedal  Organ. 

8.  The  Transmission.  9.  The  Pipes.  10.  The 
Quality  of  the  Tone.  1 1.  Mixture,  or  Compound 
Stops.  12.  The  Bellows. 

XXX.  The  History  of  the  Pipe  Organ  .  .  402 

1.  The  Bible  Organ.  2.  The  Development  of  the 
Pipe.  3.  The  Reed  Pipe.  4.  Organs  in  the  Pre- 
Christian  Era.  5.  Early  Church  Organs.  6.  The 
Introduction  of  a  Keyboard.  7.  The  Problem  of 
the  Bellows.  8.  Increasing  the  Loudness  of  the 
Organ.  9.  Control  of  the  Power  of  the  Organ. 

10.  The  Invention  of  Stops.  11.  Securing  Varied 
Quality  of  Tone.  12.  The  Improvement  of  the 
Keyboard.  13.  The  Invention  of  the  Pedals.  14. 

The  Luebeck  Organ.  15.  Recent  Improvements. 

XXXI.  The  Development  of  Organ  Music  .  417 

1.  Music  of  the  Hydraulus.  2.  The  Instinct  for 
Form.  3.  How  Instrumental  Music  Appeals.  4. 

The  First  Stage  of  Organ  Music.  5.  The  Second 
Stage  of  Organ  Music.  6.  The  Third  Stage  of 
Organ  Music.  7.  Organ  Music  in  Germany.  8. 

Organ  Music  in  Other  Countries. 

XXXII.  Purchasing  a  Pipe  Organ  •  438 

1.  The  Pastor  Needs  Knowledge  of  the  Pipe  Organ. 

2.  Depending  on  Organist  to  Manage  or  Advise. 

3.  Securing  an  Organ  Architect.  4.  The  Char¬ 
acter  of  the  Builder  Very  Important.  5.  Investigate 
the  Different  Makes  Under  Consideration.  6.  Pro¬ 
vide  Full  Specifications.  7.  Securing  Bids.  8.  The 
Location  of  the  Organ.  9.  Location  in  a  Recess. 

10.  The  Organ  Should  be  Located  in  the  Audience 
Room.  11.  Preparing  the  Foundation  of  the  Organ. 

12.  Selection  of  the  Type  of  Action.  13.  Select¬ 
ing  the  Stops.  14.  Selecting  the  Accessory  Stops. 

15.  Checking  up  the  Specifications. 

Index . 457 


INTRODUCTION 


I 


I 


IDEAS  UNDERLYING  THE  DISCUSSION 
OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  This  being  a  short  chapter,  the  teacher 
may  add  a  preliminary  discussion  of  the  whole  general  subject  of 
church  music,  of  his  ideals  and  methods,  and  of  the  spirit  in 
which  he  proposes  to  pursue  them. 

In  order  that  this  discussion  of  church  music  may  be 
more  lucid  and  helpful,  the  point  of  view,  the  conception 
underlying  it,  and  the  purpose,  ought  to  be  made  clear. 

i.  The  Point  oe  View 

The  point  of  view  is  that  of  the  Christian  worker  seek¬ 
ing  definite  results  (a)  in  the  winning  of  the  lost  and  ( b ) 
in  the  spiritual  edification  of  the  saved.  He  is  a  worker, 
not  a  critic,  not  an  idealist,  not  a  dilettante,  not  a  scholar. 
The  touchstone  of  value  is  accomplishment  of  definite 
results. 

Many  discussions  of  church  music  miss  the  largest  and 
most  important  service,  because  the  writers  observe  the 
subject  from  a  wrong  angle.  Some  are  so  impressed 
with  its  traditional  aspect,  whether  national,  denomina¬ 
tional  or  general,  that  they  can  see  nothing  else.  Others 
are  limited  by  a  wrong  conception  of  the  church  service 
as  absolutely  only  an  exercise  of  worship,  excluding  edu¬ 
cation,  inspiration,  and  social  unification.  Many  more 
give  consideration  alone  to  the  artistic  side  of  music, 
emphasizing  existing  musical  conventions  and  technic  and 
demanding  the  application  of  exclusively  artistic  criteria 
of  judgment. 


21 


22 


INTRODUCTION 


As  subordinate  considerations,  all  these  have  an  im¬ 
portant  place  and  should  not  be  disregarded  in  a  thorough 
canvass  of  the  subject.  But  none  of  them  occupies  the 
culminating  peak  of  observation  from  which  the  subject 
should  be  viewed. 

From  the  supreme  height  of  spiritual  efficiency  in  soul 
winning  and  soul  building  alone  can  the  servant  of  God 
secure  the  complete  panorama  of  the  subject,  including 
the  lesser  peaks  to  which  allusion  has  been  made. 

2.  The  Governing  Conception 

(a)  Practical  Efficiency.  It  is  important  that  it  should 
be  made  clear  that  the  governing  conception  of  the  min¬ 
ister’s  study  of  the  use  of  music  in  the  work  of  the  church 
is  practicality,  or — to  use  a  more  modern  word — effi¬ 
ciency. 

While  it  is  well  to  investigate  the  philosophy  and 
psychology  of  music,  to  study  its  development  from  the 
merely  organized  noises  of  the  early  Old  Testament  to 
its  varied  forms  of  the  present  day,  to  mark  the  varied 
forms,  conventions,  and  styles  growing  out  of  racial, 
national  and  denominational  influences,  they  have  value 
to  the  practical  minister  only  as  they  eventually  contribute 
to  the  efficiency  of  the  music  used  in  the  immediate  work 
of  his  church. 

( b )  Musical  Efficiency  not  Easily  Determined.  But 
efficiency  in  church  music  is  not  easily  determined.  There 
are  many  indeterminate  factors  involved.  In  material 
lines  efficiency  is  comparatively  easily  calculated.  The 
ultimate  end  is  clearly  defined;  the  force  to  be  used  can 
be  accurately  measured;  the  methods  are  comparatively 
simple;  the  different  stages  of  the  process  can  be  easily 
analyzed  and  differentiated;  the  results  in  detail  and  as  a 
whole  are  fully  determined  and  calculated.  The  cost 


IDEAS  UNDERLYING  THE  DISCUSSION  23 


sheets  of  any  article  of  manufacture  tell  the  story.  Com¬ 
parisons  yield  positive  data,  and  the  relative  efficiency  is 
easily  determined.  But  not  so  with  church  music.  The 
proposed  results  are  intangible,  elusive ;  the  mental  and 
moral  reactions  of  any  given  musical  number  are  incal¬ 
culable  ;  its  ultimate  results  are  affected  by  forces  and 
methods  which  act  in  cooperation  with  it,  sometimes  cov¬ 
ering  up  the  lack  of  musical  efficiency  by  their  practical 
efficiency,  sometimes  neutralizing  to  a  greater  or  less  ex¬ 
tent  the  actual  musical  efficiency  by  their  own  lack  of  it. 

(c)  Emphasis  Needed  on  Residts.  In  his  study  of 
church  music  the  minister  must  recognize  that  while  fit¬ 
ness,  dignity,  intellect,  culture,  shall  all  have  their  modify¬ 
ing  influence,  the  determining  consideration  in  our  whole 
investigation  and  study  shall  be  moral  and  spiritual 
results. 

Most  of  our  failures  in  the  management  of  church 
music  are  due  to  our  losing  sight  of  the  results  as  the 
finally  determining  factor.  Back  in  1827  Lowell  Mason, 
in  a  lecture  on  church  music,  given  in  a  leading  Boston 
church,  which  made  so  great  an  impression  that  a  com¬ 
mittee  headed  by  Dr.  Lyman  Beecher  asked  for  its  pub¬ 
lication,  said  with  great  emphasis :  “  The  principal  reason 
for  the  present  degraded  state  of  church  music  seems  to 
be  that  its  design  is  forgotten.  It  is  often  given  up  almost 
exclusively  into  the  hands  of  those  who  have  no  other 
qualifications  than  mere  musical  talent,  and  who,  being 
destitute  of  any  feelings  of  piety,  are  almost  as  unfit  to 
conduct  the  singing  of  the  church  as  they  would  be  the 
preaching  or  the  praying.” 

(d)  Results  Among  All  Classes  of  People.  Moreover, 
in  canvassing  results, the  minister  may  not  confine  himself 
to  spiritual  results  among  highly  cultivated  persons,  but 
must  include  the  larger  results  to  be  secured  among  the 


24 


INTRODUCTION 


masses  of  mankind  who  need  spiritual  help  all  the  more 
that  they  lack  general  education  and  culture.  An  Ameri¬ 
can  music  critic  wrote  of  a  book  he  was  editing:  “Ref¬ 
erence  can  only  go  to  that  element  of  the  people  which 
supports  the  musical  art — not  to  the  vulgar  mass  which 
confounds  the  emanations  of  the  so-called  music  hall  with 
music.  With  them  this  book  has  nothing  to  do.”  The 
Christian  worker  may  not  take  such  an  exclusive  attitude. 
Christ  came  to  call  sinners  to  repentance,  not  the  right¬ 
eous.  It  is  the  “  vulgar  mass  ”  that  needs  religious  in¬ 
spiration,  for  the  sake  not  only  of  its  individual  souls,  but 
for  that  of  the  general  community  as  well.  Hence  any 
broad,  genuine  consideration  of  the  spiritual  effects  of 
music  must  include  means  and  methods  to  be  used  among 
the  common  people. 

(e)  Making  Mere  Means  an  End.  So  much  emphasis 
has  been  put  upon  the  dignity  of  the  means  in  late  years 
that  we  are  in  danger  of  forgetting  the  actual  purpose  of 
the  means.  Stress  has  been  laid  upon  artistic  refinement 
and  culture  in  our  church  work  until  the  real  occasion  of 
our  efforts  is  lost  from  sight.  This  is  as  true  of  our 
preaching,  our  church  buildings,  our  church  furnishings 
and  our  church  social  life  as  it  is  of  our  singing.  Our 
Lord  did  not  disdain  to  use  spittle  and  the  dust  of  the 
roadside  in  healing  the  blind.  Should  we  be  more  fastidi¬ 
ous  than  He? 

This  has  been  particularly  true  in  the  musical  services. 
The  end  to  be  secured  by  the  use  of  music  is  not  only  in¬ 
tangible  but  is  often  a  mere  incidental,  cooperating  with 
other  means  more  immediately  associated  with  the  ulti¬ 
mate  end  in  view.  The  music  itself  calls  for  more  or  less 
elaborate  effort  by  composer  and  performers,  who  give  a 
large  part  of  their  time  and  of  themselves  to  the  work. 
The  result  usually  is  that  the  music  appears  to  these 


IDEAS  UNDERLYING  THE  DISCUSSION  25 


assistants  in  church  work  as  the  ultimate  end  without 
relation  to  any  final  spiritual  effect.  If  it  does  have  a 
spiritual  value,  it  is  a  mere  coincidence,  a  mere  accident 
unpurposed  and  unsought.  In  such  cases  music  becomes 
a  hypocrisy,  a  mechanical  intrusion  into  the  church  serv¬ 
ice,  neutralizing  the  other  factors  of  spiritual  efficiency. 

It  has  taken  too  many  generations  in  the  providence  of 
God  to  develop  this  superb  means  of  creating  and  deepen¬ 
ing  the  religious  feeling  and  spiritual  insight  of  His  people 
that  it  should  be  travestied,  as  it  too  often  is,  and  made 
an  occasion  of  manifesting  a  silly  personal  pride. 

(/)  The  Spiritual  Results  Church  Music  Produces. 
To  say  that  the  conversion  of  sinners  and  the  edification 
of  the  saints  are  the  final  purpose  of  church  music  is 
easy  enough.  The  iteration  of  the  proposition  until  it 
becomes  the  governing  idea  in  all  our  work  is  helpful  and 
corrects  many  a  misleading  idea  and  purposeless  plan. 

But  in  what  way  does  this  upbuilding  of  believers  and 
this  persuasion  of  unbelievers  follow  from  the  psalms 
and  hymns  we  sing  and  the  voluntaries  we  play?  By 
expressing  the  feelings  of  the  children  of  God  and  by 
appealing  to  those  of  the  unsaved,  is  the  prompt  and 
correct  reply.  What  feelings  are  we  to  express  and  to 
what  emotions  are  we  to  appeal?  How  are  we  to  reach 
and  impress  these  particular  sensibilities?  Here  is  the 
point  where  the  usual  thinking  upon  this  important  sub¬ 
ject  seems  to  be  out  of  focus.  It  is  sufficient  for  the 
present  to  locate  the  difficulty.  Further  on,  there  will 
be  a  better  opportunity  to  define  more  clearly  the  psychol¬ 
ogy  of  the  value  and  use  of  music  in  church  work. 

3.  The  Purpose  of  This  Discussion 

The  purpose  is  to  render  Christian  workers  more 
efficient  in  their  use  of  music  in  religious  work  by  giving 


26 


INTRODUCTION 


them  clear  conceptions  of  the  kind  of  music  to  be  used, 
and  of  the  definite  results  that  may  be  expected  from 
its  use,  and  by  suggesting  detailed  plans  and  methods  by 
which  these  desirable  results  may  be  obtained.  Ideal 
standards  have  their  place,  an  important  though  sub¬ 
ordinate  one,  but  here  we  propose  to  be  matter-of-fact, 
practical,  concrete,  with  actual,  immediate  results  among 
actual,  average  people  as  the  final  criterion  in  every  phase 
of  the  work. 

Just  as  in  ministerial  training  the  chief  purpose  is  not 
primarily  general  culture — although  that  may  be  a  very 
valuable  and  greatly  to  be  desired  incidental  acquirement ; 
not  minute  and  accurate  scholarship — although  that  may 
be  recognized  as  a  prerequisite  very  essential  to  the  full 
realization  of  its  final  purpose;  not  literary  materials  nor 
skill  in  handling  them  in  a  masterly  and  entertaining  way 
— although  that  is  an  important  factor  in  the  success  of 
any  minister;  not  mere  public  oratory,  able  to  sway  as¬ 
sembled  multitudes — although  that  is  a  combined  gift  and 
acquirement  that  any  preacher  may  most  earnestly  covet ; 
but  the  preparation  of  men  to  be  practically  successful 
preachers  and  pastors,  competent  for  every  emergency, 
adaptable  to  all  conditions  and  environments,  skillful  in 
methods  and  plans,  wise  in  the  control  and  management 
of  men  and  women,  in  short,  men  who  are  able  to  do 
things,  all  round  “  workmen  that  need  not  to  be 
ashamed  ” : — so  my  purpose  is  not  to  emphasize  high 
ideals — although  without  them  we  should  sink  into  de¬ 
grading  shallowness  and  vulgarity  subversive  of  the  very 
purposes  we  seek;  nor  a  sense  of  the  high  dignity  of 
divine  worship — although  without  that  the  truest  success 
in  our  church  music  is  impossible ;  not  the  value  of  wide 
acquaintance  with  and  appreciation  of  the  noblest  music 
that  has  been  written — although  without  that  there  can  be 


IDEAS  UNDERLYING  THE  DISCUSSION  27 


no  broad  intelligent  mastery  of  any  and  every  situation; 
not  the  cultivation  of  a  fine  and  discriminative  musical 
taste — although  that  too  is  essential  to  practical  adapta¬ 
tion  to  varied  situations  and  demands ;  but  so  to  instruct 
and  inspire  all  who  have  leadership  in  the  service  of  song 
that  they  may  be  able  (a)  in  the  place  where  they  are 
working,  ( b )  among  the  people  for  whom  they  are  toil¬ 
ing,  to  provide  (c)  the  greatest  religious  helpfulness,  ( d ) 
the  most  lifting  inspiration,  ( e )  the  impulse  to  the  most 
positive  and  immediate  spiritual  decision  that  the  use  of 
music  can  bring  the  souls  for  whom  they  are  responsible. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  three  ideas  underlie  the  discussion  of  church  music 
in  this  work? 

2.  What  is  the  point  of  view  from  which  the  subject  is  con¬ 
sidered? 

3.  What  results  is  the  Christian  worker  supposed  to  be 
seeking? 

4.  What  three  points  of  view  are  considered  ill-chosen? 

5.  What  is  the  governing  conception? 

6.  Why  is  musical  efficiency  hard  to  determine? 

7.  Why  should  the  word  “  results  ”  have  the  chief  emphasis? 

8.  Should  the  word  be  limited  in  its  scope? 

9.  What  is  the  danger  in  the  use  of  elaborate  music? 

10.  What  spiritual  results  should  church  music  produce? 

11.  What  is  the  purpose  of  the  discussion? 

12.  In  what  does  a  musical  Christian  worker’s  efficiency  con¬ 
sist? 

13.  What  are  the  four  subordinate  musical  acquirements  a 
minister  may  possess? 

14.  What  two  conditions  of  environment  must  the  Christian 
worker  bear  in  mind? 

15.  What  three  lines  of  influence  can  the  use  of  music  bring  to 
bear? 


II 

WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  If  a  good  pianist  can  be  secured  have 
him  play  a  piano  arrangement  of  the  first  movement  of  Bee¬ 
thoven’s  Fifth  Symphony  following  the  discussion  of  Section  n  of 
this  chapter. 

Supplementary  Reading:  J.  N.  Steele,  “  The  Importance  of 
Musical  Knowledge  to  the  Priesthood  of  the  Church,”  Post,  N.Y. ; 
Waldo  Selden  Pratt,  “  Musical  Ministries.”  Chapter  on  “  The 
Minister’s  Responsibility,”  Revell,  N.  Y. ;  J.  S.  Curwen,  “  Studies 
in  Worship  Music,”  Second  Series,  Art.,  “  Music  in  Theological 
Schools,”  Curwen,  London;  F.  G.  Edwards,  “United  Praise,” 
Chap.  I,  Curwen,  London ;  A.  M.  Richardson,  “  Church  Music,” 
Chap.  I,  Longmans,  London. 

i.  Ministerial  Indifference  to  Church  Music 

It  is  difficult  to  understand  the  very  general  and  long 
continued  ministerial  indifference  to  church  music.  La 
Trobe  in  1831,  in  his  “The  Music  of  the  Church,”  la¬ 
ments  over  the  neglect  into  which  church  music  had 
fallen  in  his  day:  “In  short,  so  glaring  is  the  want  of 
interest  manifested  towards  devotional  music,  that  one 
might  imagine  all  reasoning  upon  its  properties  were 
based  on  the  assumption  that  real  godliness  is  in  reverse 
proportion  to  the  cultivation  of  the  sacred  song.” 

From  that  day  to  this  the  same  general  tendency  has 
been  manifest.  The  chief  reason  then  as  now  was  the 
musical  ignorance  of  the  ministry.  There  has  been  the 
tacit  assumption  that  unless  a  minister  has  special  musical 
training  he  is  not  called  upon  to  take  any  interest  in,  or 
responsibility  for,  the  music  of  his  church  service.1 

1  The  same  attitude  has  not  been  taken  towards  other  forms  of 
church  art, — architecture,  sculpture,  painting,  artistic  glass,  vest¬ 
ments,  etc.  Is  there  an  unconscious  survival  of  the  mediaeval 
socially  contemptuous  attitude  towards  vagrant  troubadours  and 
singers? 


28 


WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  29 


2.  Musical  Pastors  Discounted 

Here  and  there  is  a  musical  pastor,  who  by  native 
musical  gifts  and  tastes  or  by  early  environment,  comes 
to  his  ministerial  work  with  some  sort  of  preparation  to 
use  the  musical  resources  of  his  congregation.  His 
large  success,  instead  of  stimulating  others  to  gain 
a  like  power,  is  nonchalantly  referred  to  his  peculiar 
gifts  that  differentiate  him  from  other  ministers.  There 
is  even  an  occasional  deprecation  of  it,  as  indicating  a 
possible  weakness  in  his  composition,  or  a  prejudiced  de¬ 
preciation  of  his  general  abilities,  such  as  ministers  of 
consciously  scholarly  inclinations  sometimes  manifest 
towards  their  colleagues  who  possess  popular  oratorical 
powers. 

More  important  than  ecclesiastical  architecture  or  pic¬ 
torial  or  plastic  art,  is  church  music,  because  it  is  so  in¬ 
tegral  and  unceasing  a  part  of  the  current  church  life, 
while  the  others  are  only  episodic  in  their  application. 
There  seems  to  be  no  good  reason  why  it  should  not  have 
a  place  in  the  minister’s  interest  and  thought  second  only 
to  that  of  his  sermon. 

3.  Historical  Instances  of  Ministerial  Cultiva¬ 
tion  of  Church  Music 

Luther,2  in  the  organization  of  the  Reformation,  the 
Wesleys,  in  what  may  be  called  the  second  English  Ref¬ 
ormation,  Jonathan  Edwards,  in  the  great  New  England 
Revival,  the  evangelizing  sects  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  all  emphasized  the  need  of  ministerial 
attention  to  the  music  of  the  church. 

Indeed,  much  earlier  in  the  development  of  the  Chris- 

2  The  first  accomplishment  demanded  by  Luther  for  a  pastor 
was  Theology,  the  second,  Music. — Cunz,  “  Geschichte  des 
Deutschen  Kirchenliedes,”  1855,  p.  9. 


30 


INTRODUCTION 


tian  Church  the  need  of  musical  preparation  of  the 
clergy  was  recognized  and  provided  for.  While,  as  we 
shall  see,  Gregory  the  Great  provided  for  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  church  music  training  schools,  there  were  such 
schools  in  existence  before  his  day.  Charlemagne 
founded  a  number  of  such  institutions  in  the  northern 
part  of  his  empire,  which  brought  into  the  service  of  the 
church  the  native  musical  talent  of  the  Teutonic  peoples 
and  laid  the  foundations  of  modern  secular  as  well  as 
sacred  music.  A  thorough  course  in  Gregorian  music 
is  still  required  of  all  candidates  for  the  priesthood  by 
the  American  Roman  Catholic  Church. 

In  Germany  it  is  assumed  that  a  candidate  for  the 
clerical  office  has  had  musical  training  from  childhood 
up.  Then  in  his  formal  training  for  the  ministry,  he 
must  take  special  courses  in  the  University  on  Peda¬ 
gogics,  Liturgy,  Church  Music  and  Folksong.3 

In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  there  was 
extraordinary  attention  paid  to  the  subject  of  church 
music  in  this  country.  Such  ministers  as  Mather,  Ed- 

8  In  the  report  of  the  Joint  Commission  on  Church  Music  to  the 
General  Convention  of  the  Episcopal  Church  at  Portland,  Oregon, 
in  1922,  the  following  recommendations  appear : 

“  It  is  our  opinion  that  in  every  Seminary  and  Theological 
School  a  course  of  instruction  should  be  provided  in  the  History 
and  Appreciation  of  Church  Music  (including  musical  hymn- 
ology).  .  .  . 

“  To  this  end  we  most  earnestly  advise  that  such  a  course  be 
outlined,  providing  for  a  systematic  and  thorough  grounding  in 
these  subjects;  and  that  the  cooperation  of  the  seminaries  and 
theological  schools  be  secured  in  its  establishment  as  a  part  of 
their  curriculum  to  be  required  of  all  students.” 

Special  attention  is  called  to  this  report  which  reviews  the 
musical  work  of  the  church  in  a  very  sympathetic,  sensible  and 
thorough  way.  It  is  eminently  worth  any  minister’s  while  to 
secure  a  copy  of  it  and  to  read  it  thoughtfully. 


WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  31 


wards,  Dwight  of  Woodstock,  Prince  of  South  Church, 
Boston,  and  others  preached  to  their  own  people  upon  it 
and  exchanged  pulpits  in  order  to  impress  their  several 
congregations  with  the  importance  of  the  people’s  partici¬ 
pation  in  the  service  of  song. 

In  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  was  also 
quite  a  great  deal  of  interest  in  the  subject.  Thomas 
Hastings,  Nathaniel  D.  Gould,  Richard  Storrs  Willis, 
and  others  wrote  valuable  books  emphasizing  the  religious 
and  practical  side  of  church  music.  Lowell  Mason, 
Darius  E.  Jones  and  George  J.  Webb  started  a  journal, 
“  The  Choral  Advocate,”  to  create  a  wider  and  more  in¬ 
telligent  interest  in  music  of  the  churches,  and  leading 
clergymen  supported  the  enterprise  with  influence  and 
pen.  One  of  the  results  of  that  reform  movement  is 
the  body  of  American  church  tunes  that  have  been  so 
productive  of  good,  not  only  in  this  country,  but  in  Eng¬ 
land  and  in  the  mission  fields  of  the  world. 

4.  Decay  of  Ministerial  Interest 

During  the  last  half  century  this  ministerial  interest  in 
the  practical  phase  of  the  subject  has  passed  away. 
What  interest  has  been  shown  has  been  historic,  aca¬ 
demic,  and  artistic.  The  whole  subject  has  practically 
been  handed  over  to  professional  musicians  and  popular 
leaders  of  song.  So  far  from  there  being  an  effort  to 
create  an  interest  in  church  music  among  young  ministers, 
it  often  occurs  that  older  ministers,  and  even  professors 
of  practical  theology  in  our  seminaries,  advise  them  to 
keep  their  hands  off  the  music  in  their  congregations. 
Is  there  need  to  animadvert  upon  the  cowardice,  the 
caution  gone  to  seed,  of  such  counsel? 

Whatever  the  reason,  it  is  very  unfortunate  that  this 
ministerial  indifference  towards  church  music  should 


32 


INTRODUCTION 


persist.  There  are  so  many  reasons  why  the  very  op¬ 
posite  attitude  should  be  taken, — one  of  abiding,  intelli¬ 
gent,  enthusiastic  interest, — that  indifference  reflects  alike 
upon  the  piety  and  the  intelligence  of  the  minister  who 
ignores  the  claims  of  his  church's  music  upon  his  atten¬ 
tion. 

5.  Music  is  an  Important  Part  of  Church  Work 

The  prominent  place  music  occupies  in  the  life  of  the 
church  alone  not  only  justifies  but  loudly  demands  atten¬ 
tion  and  study  from  the  director  of  the  local  church’s 
activities  of  so  abiding  and  unfailing  a  phase  of  its  work. 
Whether  Bishop  Beveridge  in  his  defense  of  the  singing 
of  psalms  indulges  in  unconscious  irony  or  not,  he  cer¬ 
tainly  was  right  in  his  fundamental  proposition :  “  Some, 
perhaps,  may  wonder  why  any  one  should  thus  trouble 
himself  about  so  low  and  mean  a  subject  as  this  is  gen¬ 
erally  thought  to  be.  But  I  think  nothing  mean  that 
hath  any  relation  to  the  service  of  God  and  His  Church.” 

6.  Responsibility  for  Music  a  Part  of  the 
Ministerial  Obligation 

When  a  minister  takes  upon  himself  the  ministerial 
vows  he  accepts  all  the  obligations  involved.  He  cannot 
say,  “  I  am  a  preacher  and  not  a  pastor.”  He  still  is 
responsible,  not  only  for  his  congregation  as  a  whole,  but 
for  every  individual  in  it.  He  cannot  say,  “  I  will  preach 
and  pray  in  the  church  service,  let  him  who  will  run  the 
music.”  The  music  remains  an  essential  part  of  the 
service,  for  the  whole  of  which  he  is  responsible,  and 
affects  for  weal  or  woe  the  reactions  of  the  service  upon 
the  people,  and  he  cannot  evade  responsibility. 

This  is  all  the  more  important  since  without  authorita- 


WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  33 


tive  leadership  the  musical  part  of  the  church  life  can¬ 
not  succeed,  any  more  than  any  other  phase  of  its  activi¬ 
ties.  No  matter  how  competent  the  organist  and  the 
director  of  the  choir  may  be,  they  cannot  reach  up  to 
their  highest  efficiency  except  as  they  cooperate  with  the 
highest  authority  in  the  congregation  in  the  development 
of  his  methods  and  plans.  Waldo  S.  Pratt  in  his  sug¬ 
gestive  and  helpful  “  Musical  Ministries  in  the  Church  ” 
well  says,  “  In  the  last  analysis  the  thorough  success  of 
musical  parish  work  is  impossible  without  somewhat 
positive  qualities  in  the  minister  and  in  his  habits  of 
thought  and  action.  In  the  musical  department,  as  in 
others,  the  minister  is  formally  commander-in-chief  and 
his  technical  headship  must  be  confirmed  by  his  being 
actually  the  central  authority  and  the  fountainhead  of 
right  ideas,  dominating  impulses,  and  wise  plans  of 
action.” 

The  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  a  liturgical  body, 
naturally  places  great  emphasis  on  sacred  music  as  it  is  so 
integral  a  part  of  its  noble  liturgy.  It  has  a  canon  which 
really  only  expresses  what  is  tacitly  recognized  in  every 
denomination  regarding  the  minister’s  responsibility  for 
the  music  in  the  services  over  which  he  presides. 

“  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  minister  of  this  church, 
with  such  assistance  as  he  may  see  fit  to  employ  from 
persons  skilled  in  music,  to  give  order  concerning  the 
tunes  to  be  sung  at  any  time  in  his  church.”  To  this 
canon  as  to  all  others,  the  candidate  for  ordination 
solemnly  promises  to  conform.  But  how  can  he  properly 
fulfill  his  vows  if  he  has  had  no  proper  training  to  fit  him 
for  this  responsibility  ? 4 

4  The  following  is  an  early  recognition  of  the  value  of  music 
in  religious  work : 

“  So  instrumental  is  musick  to  all  the  uses  of  religion  that  it 


34 


INTRODUCTION 


7.  The  Duty  of  Praise 

If  the  chief  end  of  man  in  general  is  to  glorify  God  and 
to  enjoy  Him  forever,  as  the  Shorter  Catechism  teaches 
us,  may  we  not  draw  the  inevitable  corollary  that  such 
is  the  peculiar  purpose  of  the  minister’s  life?  The  rep¬ 
resentative  and  ambassador  of  God,  the  intimate  friend 
to  whom  are  revealed  the  deep  things  of  spiritual  privi¬ 
lege, — who  should  take  greater  delight  than  he  in  prais¬ 
ing  and  adoring  his  King  and  his  Friend?  He  should 
emulate  his  fellow  servants  in  heaven  who  continually 
do  cry,  “Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord  God  of  Sabaoth!” 
The  singing  of  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs 
should  be  no  mere  duty,  it  should  be  the  delight  of  his 
life.  Jonathan  Edwards  in  his  sermon  on  Self-examina¬ 
tion  enforces  the  duty  of  singing  on  all  Christians.  “  As 
it  is  the  commandment  of  God  that  all  shall  sing,  so  all 
should  make  conscience  of  learning  to  sing,  as  it  is  a 
thing  which  cannot  be  decently  performed  at  all  without 
learning;  those,  therefore,  who  neglect  to  learn  to  sing 
live  in  sin  (the  italics  are  Edwards’  own),  as  they  neglect 
what  is  necessary  in  order  to  their  attending  one  of  the 
ordinances  of  God’s  worship.”  If  this  attention  to  sing¬ 
ing  is  the  duty  of  all  Christians,  is  it  not  in  an  intensified 
degree  that  of  the  minister  to  whose  care  their  united 
praise  is  entrusted? 

looks  as  if  there  could  be  no  religion  without  it.  ’Tis  a  pleasure 
to  the  greatest  saint ;  and  has  an  influence  on  the  gravest 
prophet ;  ’tis  an  employment  for  a  blessed  angel  and  an  enter¬ 
tainment  to  God  Himself.  ’Tis  the  life  of  heaven  and  the  joy 
of  all  the  ends  of  the  earth.  In  a  word,  ’tis  so  humane  an 
excellency,  that  ’tis  an  offense  against  nature  to  suppress  it; 
and  so  divine  an  accomplishment,  that  ’tis  almost  blasphemy  to 
disparage  it.” — Quoted  from  sermon  of  Dr.  Charles  Hickman 
in  1695. 


WHY  A  MINISTEB  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  35 


8.  The  Prominence  of  Music  in  the  Bible 

To  the  devout  minister  the  prominence  of  music  in  the 
Bible  gives  no  small  sanction  to  it  and  lays  no  small 
burden  of  duty  to  cultivate  it  upon  him. 

Bible  history  is  pervaded  by  religious  singing.  From 
the  time  the  morning  stars  sang  together  until  the  pre¬ 
vision  of  the  great  marriage  supper  of  the  Lamb,  where 
John  heard,  as  it  were,  the  voice  of  a  great  multitude,  and 
as  the  voice  of  many  waters,  and  as  the  voice  of  mighty 
thunderings,  saying,  “Alleluia !  for  the  Lord  God  om¬ 
nipotent  reigneth !  ”  the  Bible  is  one  long  illustrated  song 
service.  Again  and  again  the  dreary  wilderness  of  de¬ 
tailed  ritual,  or  dry  pedigree,  or  petty  history  of  petty 
tribes  and  of  petty  wars,  blossoms  out  into  an  oasis  of 
song,  and  the  high  palms  of  beauty  wave  over  the  re¬ 
freshing  fountains  of  the  songs  of  Miriam,  of  Deborah, 
of  David’s  lament  over  Saul,  of  Hezekiah’s  thanksgiving. 
How  many  millions  through  all  these  generations  have 
laved  their  parched  lips  at  the  sweet  waters  of  the  Psalms, 
and  how  often  those  who  drank  became  in  turn  living 
fountains  to  bless  and  comfort  succeeding  generations ! 

Have  you  ever  stood  in  imagination  among  the  eager 
throngs,  when  all  the  men  of  Israel  assembled  them¬ 
selves  on  that  great  Dedication  Day  of  the  temple  of 
Solomon,  and  watched  the  orchestra  and  the  chorus  that 
had  been  organized?  And  did  you  note  that  as  the 
trumpeters  and  singers  were  as  one,  to  make  one  sound 
to  be  heard  in  praising  and  thanking  the  Lord,  and  when 
they  lifted  up  their  voices  with  the  trumpets  and  cymbals, 
and  instruments  of  music  and  praised  the  Lord,  saying, 
“  For  He  is  good,  for  His  mercy  endureth  forever,” 
that  then  the  house  was  filled  with  a  cloud,  even  the 
house  of  the  Lord;  so  that  the  priests  could  not  stand  to 


36 


INTRODUCTION 


minister  by  reason  of  the  cloud ;  for  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
has  filled  the  house  of  God? 

Let  us  stand  outside  the  upper  chamber  where  the 
solemn  mystery  of  the  Eucharist  is  being  instituted  and 
listen  while  the  men’s  choir  sings  the  Paschal  Hymn  once 
more,  for  the  last  time  together,  as  a  doxology.  Do  we 
not  hear  the  voice  of  their  and  our  Master  leading  its 
strains?  With  the  cloud  of  the  Lord’s  glory  in  the 
ancient  temple  and  the  Master’s  leadership  of  His  men’s 
choir  on  the  eve  of  His  great  passion,  can  His  servant  be 
indifferent  to  the  importance  and  value  and  blessing  of 
sacred  song? 

9.  Modern  Music  the  Child  of  the  Christian 

Church 

Again  the  minister’s  interest  in  music  should  be  stimu¬ 
lated  by  the  fact  that  modern  music  is  the  child  of  the 
Christian  Church.  Out  of  the  meagre  unisons  and  un¬ 
organized  modes  of  Grecian  sacred  and  secular  music, 
the  clergy  and  monks  of  the  early  Church  and  the  pious 
choral  leaders  and  organists  since  the  Middle  Ages,  have 
evolved  the  infinitely  varied  expressiveness  and  power  of 
our  modern  music. 

10.  The  Value  of  the  History  of  Church  Music 

If  it  is  important  that  the  minister  should  follow  the 
development  of  Christian  doctrine  from  the  apostolic  age 
until  the  present;  if  it  is  wise  that  he  should  be  able  to 
give  the  leading  epochs  in  the  history  of  Christ’s  kingdom 
on  earth,  and  have  a  more  or  less  detailed  knowledge  of 
the  life-work  of  the  great  leaders  of  the  Christian  Church, 
it  would  seem  that  he  ought  also  to  seek  to  have  a  com¬ 
prehensive  view  of  the  development  of  the  music  which 


WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  37 


forms  so  striking  and  important  a  part  of  every  public 
service. 

Why  should  not  Palestrina  be  as  interesting  a  character 
as  Savonarola?  Why  should  not  Bach  warrant  study 
as  well  as  Melanchthon?  Why  should  not  the  Genevan 
Psalter  interest  a  minister  as  much  as  Calvin’s  Institutes  ? 
The  new  hymns  and  chorals  introduced  by  Luther  did 
more  to  spread  the  Reformation  among  Germanic  peoples 
than  did  the  Augsburg  Confession ;  why  should  they  not 
have  at  least  equal  attention,  particularly  as  they  still 
are  full  of  life  and  power,  while  the  Lutheran  symbol  is 
a  petrified  fossil? 

Indeed  it  would  be  impossible  for  him  to  have  any  in¬ 
telligent  basis  for  his  judgment  upon  church  music  with¬ 
out  such  historic  knowledge.  If  he  knows  nothing  about 
the  contrapuntal  ingenuities  and  fantastic  polyphonies  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  how  can  the  name  Palestrina  mean  any¬ 
thing  to  him,  and  how  can  the  reforming  influence  of  the 
Renaissance  upon  church  life  be  fully  comprehended? 

If  he  knows  nothing  about  the  chorale  in  its  relation  to 
the  German  Reformation,  knows  nothing  of  its  influence 
upon  German  life  and  character  through  the  centuries 
that  have  since  passed,  how  can  he  appreciate  its  solemn 
dignity  and  power,  or  how  can  he  understand  its  hold 
upon  the  German  people?  In  no  other  way  can  he  hope 
to  explain  its  adaptation  to  their  religious  life  and  char¬ 
acter,  or  comprehend  why,  though  so  powerful  among 
them,  it  should  not  have  equal  power  or  adaptation  among 
the  American  people  who  have  had  a  different  history 
and  have  developed  a  nervous  system  of  an  entirely  dif¬ 
ferent  type. 

If  the  minister  has  not  followed  the  development  of  the 
American  hymn  tune  from  William  Billings  down  to  the 
present  time,  if  he  does  not  know  the  extraordinary  in- 


38 


INTRODUCTION 


fluence  of  Lowell  Mason  upon  American  church  music, 
or  the  progress  of  the  English  hymn  tune  from  Tallis 
down  to  Dykes,  how  can  he  judge  as  to  their  relative 
claims  upon  American  churches? 

Surely  he  ought  to  have  acquired  some  knowledge  of 
the  evolution  of  the  American  Gospel  Song  from  the  rude 
choruses  that  were  sung  by  the  early  settlers  in  the  log 
schoolhouses  and  churches,  and  so  be  led  to  appreciate 
that  it  is  the  outgrowth  of  American  religious  conditions 
and  a  very  part  of  the  web  and  woof  of  American  church 
life.  How  else  can  he  judge  of  its  real  practical  value 
and  its  appropriate  place  in  our  more  sophisticated  church 
activities,  when  the  special  pleader  for  Anglican  church 
music  vehemently  attacks  this  characteristically  American 
form  of  church  music? 

As  the  careful  study  of  the  history  of  Christian  apolo¬ 
getics,  in  which  he  notes  the  swinging  of  the  pendulum 
of  thought  from  severely  orthodox  doctrines  to  liberal 
rationalism,  only  in  due  time  to  swing  back  again,  gives 
the  Christian  minister  serenity  and  repose  of  mind  in  the 
face  of  radical  higher  critics  and  other  rationalizing 
teachers  in  and  out  of  the  Church,  so  an  intimate  knowl¬ 
edge  of  the  history  of  church  music  beyond  the  Atlantic 
and  in  our  own  country  will  give  a  poise  of  mind  that 
cannot  be  disturbed  by  doctrinaires,  or  by  travellers  in 
Europe  who  have  had  a  novel  musical  experience  and 
who  think  they  are  bringing  back  a  new  musical  gospel. 

ii.  Development  of  Artistic  Responsiveness 

While  the  artistic  temperament  has  not  been  given  to 
all  men  in  like  degree,  yet  it  is  possible  to  develop  capacity 
for  the  appreciation  of  things  beautiful.  The  religious 
and  moral  are  the  chief  categories  that  engage  the  mind 
of  the  minister,  but  he  cannot  properly  emphasize  and 


WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  39 


impress  them  upon  his  hearers  unless  he  have  also  an 
interest  in  and  sympathy  for  that  which  is  artistic  and 
beautiful.  While  the  categories  of  the  true,  the  good, 
the  right  and  the  absolute  are  distinct  from  that  of  the 
beautiful,  it  is  nevertheless  closely  associated  with  them 
and  greatly  assists  in  their  development. 

There  is  nothing  so  stimulating  to  the  imagination  as 
is  music.  The  vague  physical  sensations  it  produces 
bring  waking  dreams  to  those  who  are  naturally  imagina¬ 
tive  and  in  their  minds  are  translated  into  pictorial  forms. 

Who  can  hear  the  Fifth  Symphony  of  Beethoven  with 
its  motif  of  Death  knocking  at  the  door 5  without  being 
deeply  impressed,  and  stimulated  to  an  intense  degree? 
Now  with  one  instrument,  now  with  another,  the  hand 
of  Death  is  heard  knocking,  knocking,  persistently  knock¬ 
ing.  The  phrase  is  mysterious,  haunting,  ever  recur¬ 
ring,  sometimes  sweet  and  plaintive,  sometimes  with  the 
roar  of  the  ocean  sounding  through  its  measures,  some¬ 
times  crashing  and  pounding  with  brass  and  cymbals,  as 
though  siege  guns  were  being  trained  upon  the  heart. 
As  the  music  proceeds,  this  Death  March  of  the  race 
brings  pictures  of  the  earth’s  generations  as  they  were 
born,  only  too  soon  to  pass  away  under  the  hand  of  the 
great  destroyer.  The  lonely  death  in  the  wilderness,  the 
quiet  cot  surrounded  by  weeping  loved  ones,  the  gory 
pomp  of  battle  where  thousands  perish, — how  the  pictures 
crowd  upon  the  imagination !  Then  the  Adagio  sings 
out  the  psalm  of  life,  tender  and  sweet,  and  often  plain¬ 
tive,  and  then  rises  into  the  very  climax  of  power  and 
impressiveness  as  life  at  last  celebrates  its  complete 
victory  over  human  mortality. 


40 


INTKODUCTION 


Surely  under  a  spell  such  as  this  there  must  come  to 
the  dullest  brains  new  possibilities  of  thought,  fresh  con¬ 
ceptions  of  more  beautiful  things  than  he  had  ever  before 
dreamed,  while  wider  horizons  break  in  upon  him.  If  any 
preacher  has  reason  to  fear  that  his  public  efforts  are  dry, 
uninteresting,  and  without  genuine  appeal  to  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  men,  let  him  quicken  his  imagination  by 
reading  great  poetry  and  hearing  good  music,  and  the 
wilderness  of  his  mind  will  blossom  as  the  rose. 

12.  Music  Develops  Emotional  Powers 

Closely  allied  to  the  stimulating  effect  of  music  upon 
the  imagination  is  its  appeal  to  the  emotional  nature.  It 
may  be  made  an  opportunity  for  emotional  training  and 
development,  such  as  can  be  secured  in  possibly  no  other 
way.  While  the  emotional  minister  has  to  contend  with 
shallow  fluctuations  of  mood,  or  what  is  worse,  conscious 
stimulation  or  even  a  simulation  of  emotion  he  wishes 
to  feel,  his  unemotional,  matter-of-fact  brother,  who  lacks 
these  weaknesses  and  temptations,  lacks  also  his  power 
over  men, — for  only  a  small  proportion  among  men  think, 
while  all  feel. 

The  naturally  phlegmatic  minister  ought  to  develop  his 
latent  powers  of  emotion,  and  he  will  find  music  a  great 
help  in  the  effort.  To  hear  martial  music,  with  its  irre¬ 
sistible  tramp,  tramp,  tramp,  demanding  action  and 
progress,  is  to  develop  courage  and  aggressiveness.  To 
listen  sympathetically  to  the  stately  funeral  march  will 
lift  personal  grief  and  sense  of  loss  to  a  more  dignified 
and  nobler  plane  of  feeling.  The  tender  ballad,  the  touch¬ 
ing  song,  will  call  forth  his  sense  of  pathos  and  render 
him  more  susceptible  to  the  sorrows  of  his  people.  The 
impression  made  by  some  great  anthems  of  praise,  rising 


WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  41 


grandly  above  the  commonplace  of  life’s  mechanical 
routine,  must  render  him  more  capable  of  approaching 
his  Maker  with  proper  solemnity  and  dignity  of  feeling 
and  speech.  So  throughout  the  whole  gamut  of  human 
susceptibility,  music  by  laying  the  physical  basis  of  feel¬ 
ing  inspires  feeling.  This  feeling  awakes  the  latent  re¬ 
sourcefulness  of  matter  and  manner  and  fits  the  man  for 
general  apprehension  and  vital  consideration  of  the  great 
subjects  with  which  it  is  his  mission  to  impress  the  hearts 
and  lives  of  his  hearers. 

13.  Sources  of  Illustrative  Material 

While  the  whole  world  is  open  to  the  preacher  from 
which  to  secure  illustrative  materials,  there  is  no  realm  of 
human  thought  more  likely  to  be  appreciated  and  under¬ 
stood  and  yet  so  fresh  and  little  used  as  that  of  music. 
Our  public  schools  are  singing  schools  and  our  little  folks 
are  learning  to  do,  re,  mi,  with  their  alphabet.  In  every 
house  is  the  tinkle  of  the  mandolin,  the  strumming  of  the 
guitar,  the  swelling  notes  of  the  reed  organ,  or  the  almost 
orchestral  variety  of  the  piano.  Many  who  are  not 
studying  music  at  all,  are  unconsciously  absorbing  its 
leading  facts  from  their  musical  environment. 

The  preacher,  therefore,  will  find  his  audience  pecu¬ 
liarly  responsive  to  metaphors,  similes,  and  even  more 
extensive  historical  or  artistic  illustrations  from  this 
field.  Where  there  is  no  previous  knowledge,  there  is 
at  least  interest,  and  the  fact  of  musical  history,  the 
musical  anecdote,  the  description  of  some  great  composi¬ 
tion,  the  allusion  to  some  famous  song,  will  catch  the 
lagging  attention.  Nay,  more!  These  musical  memories 
are  closely  associated  with  the  sources  of  feeling.  If 
the  string  of  sympathetic  memory  is  set  to  vibrating,  it  is 
more  than  likely  that  the  other  strings  of  human  feeling 


42 


INTRODUCTION 


will  vibrate  in  harmony  with  it,  and  so  prepare  the  hearer 
for  the  impression  the  preacher  desires  to  make. 

14.  Social  Value  of  Musical  Training 

A  more  or  less  thorough  knowledge  of  music  will  give 
a  minister  greater  command  over  his  congregation. 
Musical  people  will  be  attracted  by  the  community  of 
interest  and  taste.  Those  who  are  intimately  identified 
with  the  music  of  the  church  will  have  a  sense  of  com¬ 
radeship  otherwise  not  likely  to  exist.  This  intimacy 
will  make  possible  many  plans  that  otherwise  could  not 
be  considered.  If  he  is  wise  and  tactful,  he  can  win 
their  loyal  cooperation  for  many  plans  outside  of  the 
church  music. 

This  musical  knowledge  will  give  him  a  hold  upon  his 
young  people  and  secure  their  loyal  support,  for  the 
young  people  are  usually  the  most  enthusiastic  devotees 
of  music.  It  will  give  him  larger  opportunities  for 
leadership  and  an  additional  basis  for  authority.  It  will 
put  him  in  touch  with  every  form  of  the  church  activity 
and  give  him  an  excuse  for  a  controlling  influence  that 
might  otherwise  have  been  resented.  It  makes  him  the 
master  of  the  whole  situation. 

15.  Its  Large  Place  in  Public  Services 

But  if  there  were  no  other  reason  for  the  minister's 
interest  in  music,  its  large  place  in  the  public  service 
would  be  all-sufficient.  From  one-fifth  to  one-half  of 
every  service  over  which  the  minister  has  authority  is 
taken  up  with  music.  In  the  public  service  there  are 
the  preludes,  offertories,  and  postludes  by  the  organist, 
the  anthem,  responses,  and  solos  by  the  choir,  and  the 
congregational  singing.  The  responsiveness  of  his  hear¬ 
ers  to  his  message  will  greatly  depend  upon  the  ore- 


WHY  A  MINISTEB  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  43 


liminary  music,  the  final  impression  upon  the  closing 
musical  exercises.  Would  any  competent  manager  of 
an  equally  important  enterprise  leave  such  controlling  in¬ 
fluences  to  the  mercy  of  chance,  or  to  the  ignorance  or  the 
perversity  of  assistants? 

How  much  the  prayer  service  is  depressed  by  incom¬ 
petent  leadership  in  song,  or  inadequate  musical  pro¬ 
vision,  hardly  needs  emphasis.  Dull,  uninspiring  music 
in  the  Young  People’s  Society  is  sure  to  wreck  its  meet¬ 
ings.  Bright,  lively  songs  in  the  Sunday-school  assure 
large  attendance,  and  spirit  and  enthusiasm  in  all  its 
work.  In  an  evangelistic  meeting  the  best  workers  now 
recognize  the  singing  to  be  more  than  half  the  battle. 

Now  whether  this  varied  music  in  all  these  services 
shall  be  effective  and  helpful  in  realizing  the  results  he 
desires  of  any  meeting,  or  whether  it  shall  be  absolutely 
in  antagonism  to  his  purpose,  leading  him  to  miss  the 
opportunities  the  meeting  affords,  depends  upon  the  min¬ 
ister’s  skill  in  controlling  and  shaping  the  musical  service. 

Nothing  can  be  more  pitiable  than  the  ignorant  help¬ 
lessness  of  a  minister  who  depends  upon  the  more  or  less 
inefficient  musical  resources  of  his  congregation.  He  has 
no  control  over  it;  he  has  no  means  of  directing  its  in¬ 
fluence  or  shaping  its  methods.  His  musical  subordi¬ 
nates  may  have  absolutely  and  diametrically  antagonistic 
ideas  of  what  the  church  service  should  be;  but  he  is 
helpless.  He  may  wish  to  produce  distinctly  religious 
results;  the  most  competent  musical  help  often  ignores 
religious  results  and  seeks  only  those  that  are  artistic. 

The  outcome  is  a  kingdom  divided  against  itself,  a 
service  with  two  distinct  and  often  antagonistic  ideals 
and  purposes.  He  may  realize  the  difficulty,  but  in  his 
ignorance  he  is  unable  to  change  the  situation  or  over¬ 
come  the  hindrances  that  handicap  his  work.  He  may 


44 


INTRODUCTION 


have  some  tender  message  for  his  people,  while  the 
musicians  back  of  him  sing  jubilant  strains  of  martial 
music  and  the  organist’s  voluntaries  are  brilliant  with 
technical  skill  utterly  out  of  harmony  with  his  purpose  in 
the  service.  He  may  wish  to  inspire  the  church  to  ag¬ 
gressive  action  and  to  make  the  service  a  very  trumpet 
of  awakening,  while  the  choir  sings  an  anthem  of  tender¬ 
ness,  and  his  organist  discourses  sweet  music  that  serves 
to  quiet  and  depress  the  nerves  of  his  people. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  minister  is  a  musician,  his 
musical  helpers  feel  that  he  can  speak  upon  the  subject 
with  authority;  he  can  understand  their  difficulties,  can 
appreciate  their  work  when  it  is  well  done,  and  by  a 
kindly  word  and  appreciative  look  can  develop  their 
loyalty  to  him  personally.  He  is  able  to  prepare  their 
minds,  by  quiet  suggestions  and  earnest  advice,  for  the 
larger  conception  of  the  musical  part  of  the  service.  In 
a  very  short  time  he  can  make  them  his  faithful  coad¬ 
jutors,  studying  how  to  realize  effects  he  desires  to  secure, 
advising  him  as  to  the  compositions  at  their  command, 
and  often  suggesting  not  only  musical  means  by  which 
the  service  can  be  enriched  and  made  more  effective,  but 
also  methods  that  can  be  employed  in  his  part  of  the 
service  that  might  not  otherwise  have  occurred  to  him. 

Having  at  his  command,  therefore,  no  longer  simply  his 
sermon  and  the  Scripture  readings,  but  calling  to  his 
aid  the  use  of  hymns  and  tunes  with  their  varied  and 
impressive  rendering,  the  use  of  solos  and  duets  and  con¬ 
certed  numbers,  the  use  of  the  choir  with  its  chorus  of 
intelligent  and  well-trained  voices,  his  work  will  gain  a 
richness  and  a  variety  and  a  unity  and  an  impressive¬ 
ness  that  the  unmusical  pastor  never  can  hope  to  secure. 

It  will  not  be  amiss  to  warn  the  minister  that  his  con¬ 
trol  of  the  music  of  his  church  is  not  to  be  exercised  in 


WHY  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  STUDY  MUSIC  45 


a  domineering-,  masterful  way  any  more  than  in  other 
phases  of  the  church  life.  He  may  have  an  iron  hand 
of  purpose  to  get  the  best  spiritual  results,  but  it  must 
be  upholstered  with  the  most  velvety  geniality  and  tact. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  the  too  frequent  attitude  of  ministers  towards 
church  music? 

2.  What  is  too  often  the  judgment  of  ministers  regard¬ 
ing  those  of  their  number  who  are  musical? 

3.  In  what  periods  of  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  has 
music  had  most  attention? 

4.  What  prominent  ministers  in  the  American  churches  have 
interested  themselves  in  the  proper  cultivation  of  church  music? 

5.  What  unfortunate  advice  is  often  given  to  young  ministers 
by  their  older  associates? 

6.  What  justifies  greater  attention  to  this  branch  of  church 
work? 

7.  Is  music  included  in  a  minister’s  general  obligation? 

8.  What  is  the  attitude  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
towards  a  minister’s  musical  obligations? 

9.  Why  is  the  duty  of  praising  God  preeminently  that  of  the 
minister? 

10.  What  was  Jonathan  Edwards’  judgment  regarding  public 
praise? 

11.  Give  Biblical  instances  of  the  use  of  music  on  important 
occasions. 

12.  What  historical  interest  should  the  minister  have  in  music? 

13.  What  personal  reasons  are  there  for  the  cultivation  of 
music? 

14.  State  music’s  emotional  value  to  the  minister. 

15.  What  homiletical  value  has  the  study  of  music? 

16.  How  can  music  aid  in  the  minister’s  relation  to  his  people? 

1 7.  What  is  the  relative  importance  of  music  in  the  several 
services  of  the  church? 

18.  How  will  ignorance  of  music  defeat  a  minister  in  his 
plans  ? 


Ill 


WHAT  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  KNOW  ABOUT 

MUSIC 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  It  may  be  an  aid  to  a  vivid  impres¬ 
sion  of  the  several  musical  needs  of  the  minister  to  write  the 
leading  points  of  this  very  important  chapter  on  a  blackboard,  or 
on  a  large  chart  of  white  paper  placed  on  an  easel. 

There  is  no  reason  why  an  intellectual,  alert-minded 
minister  should  not  find  the  rudiments  of  musical  nota¬ 
tion  with  their  varied  signs  and  symbols  as  interesting 
as  those  of  algebra  or  geometry.  These  signs  and 
symbols  are  not  mere  puzzles,  arbitrary  constructions  of 
misapplied  ingenuity,  but  clear  expressions  of  definite 
mathematical  facts  and  their  relations. 

In  like  manner  the  study  of  music  opens  out  a  new 
mental  dimension  full  of  new  insight  and  experience. 
As  he  appropriates  the  rudiments  of  the  art  of  Bach  and 
Beethoven,  their  genius  grows  greater  in  his  estimation 
and  not  less,  for  he  learns  to  appreciate  the  meagre 
materials  from  which  such  ravishing  or  impressive  strains 
are  constructed.  What  was  before  pleasing  but  rather 
meaningless  sound  becomes  intelligible,  and  proves  the 
vehicle  of  expression  for  thoughts  and  feelings  that 
words  are  too  clumsy  and  crass  properly  to  convey. 

i.  Knowledge  of  Musical  Notation 

While  acquiring  a  vocal  control  that  will  make  singing 
by  note  possible  calls  for  very  considerable  time  and 
practice,  a  knowledge  of  the  rudiments  of  music  can  be 

46 


■WHAT  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  KNOW  47 


acquired  by  any  man  of  average  intelligence  by  using 
the  odd  moments  of  a  single  week.  A  G  Clef  sign  ||  or 

an  F  Clef  sign  ^  is  no  more  a  mere  hieroglyphic  with¬ 
out  meaning,  but  a  recognition  of  the  fundamental 
difference  between  human  voices.  A  sharp  (#)  is  no 
longer  confused  with  a  flat  (fr),  but  both  become  keys 
to  the  different  tonalities  of  the  scale.  He  can  tell  what 
is  the  error  in  the  singing  of  a  tune  when  the  rhythm  is 
disturbed,  asking  that  a  half  note  be  given  its  full  time 
instead  of  being  sung  as  a  quarter,  or  calling  attention 
to  the  dotted  quarter  and  the  subsequent  eighth  which  are 
not  given  their  relative  values.  He  will  know  something 
of  the  beating  of  time,  when  occasion  arises  for  his  per¬ 
sonally  emphasizing  the  time  of  a  piece  that  is  being  sung, 
and  will  not  saw  the  air  in  a  blundering,  purposeless 
way  that  makes  him  ridiculous  to  the  musical  people  of 
his  congregation. 

There  are  plenty  of  helps  in  this  study  aside  from 
Chapters  IV,  V,  and  VI  of  this  work.  The  music 
text-books  used  in  the  public  schools  ought  to  serve  the 
minister’s  purpose.  Even  better  will  be  the  “  Rudi¬ 
ments  ”  found  in  the  singing  school  books,  no  longer  so 
plentiful  as  of  yore,  the  more  is  the  pity!  There  are 
music  teachers  in  every  community  who  would  be  de¬ 
lighted  to  clear  up  points  that  appear  difficult.  If  the 
minister’s  pride  will  permit,  he  can  arrange  with  his 
organist  to  tutor  him  in  his  study. 

2.  The  Psychology  of  Music 

The  minister  ambitious  to  be  spiritually  useful  will  not 
be  satisfied  mechanically  to  adopt  conventional  applica¬ 
tions  of  music  to  church  work,  using  plans  and  methods 
with  a  blind  instinct  of  social  conformity,  or  with  a  sense 
of  the  peremptory  authority  of  experts  on  the  subject. 


48 


INTRODUCTION 


While  he  may  not  be  able  to  tunnel  very  deep  into 
the  reasons  of  varied  effects  of  music,  for,  like  the  effects 
of  weather  conditions  on  the  human  system,  mob 
psychology,  telepathy,  and  other  psychological  mysteries 
of  the  human  organization,  it  is  largely  a  region  yet  un¬ 
explored  by  physiology,  psychology,  or  philosophy,  yet 
there  are  some  general  facts  and  tendencies  within  his 
reach  on  which  he  can  base  his  hopes  of  realizable  effects 
and  his  practical  plans  and  methods.  The  next  few  chap¬ 
ters  may  supply  a  little  aid  in  the  study  of  this  obscure 
subject. 

3.  History  of  Musical  Development 

Once  initiated  into  the  mysteries  of  the  musical  arcana, 
the  history  of  its  development  will  be  of  intense  interest, 
as  he  studies  the  lives  and  works  of  the  epoch-making 
composers  who  have  struck  out  new  paths  and  risen  to 
higher  and  wiser  conceptions  of  the  expressiveness  of 
music. 

4.  The  Study  of  Great  Individual  Compositions 

The  study  and  analysis  of  the  world’s  greatest  com¬ 
positions,  sacred  and  secular,  both  in  score  and  in  per¬ 
formance  must  discipline  the  mind  and  refine  the  suscep¬ 
tibilities.  Concerts  and  other  musical  performances  will 
no  longer  be  occasions  of  mere  pleasure,  vague  and 
vacant  of  thought,  but  an  opportunity  for  alert-minded- 
ness  to  find  new  material  for  study  and  for  the  breaking 
through  into  new  horizons  of  mental  and  artistic  culture. 

Beginning  with  the  leading  gospel  songs  like  “  That 
Will  be  Glory  for  Me  ”  or  “  The  King’s  Business,”  then 
“  The  Life  Line,”  “  Rescue  the  Perishing”  and  “  I  Need 
Thee  Every  Hour,”  he  should  raise  his  power  of  apprecia¬ 
tion  to  anthems  like  Shelley’s  “  Hark,  Hark,  My  Soul  ” 
and  then  to  great  choruses  like  Gounod’s  “  Unfold,  Ye 


WHAT  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  KNOW  49 


Portals,”  Handel’s  “  Hallelujah  Chorus,”  Haydn’s  “  The 
Heavens  Are  Telling.”  Indeed,  every  opportunity  to 
hear  these  great  oratorios,  “  The  Messiah,”  “  Redemp¬ 
tion,”  “  Creation,”  “  The  Judgment,”  “  The  Crucifixion,” 
and  many  others  should  be  seized  and  even  sought  after 
as  a  means  of  broad  musical  culture. 

It  will  be  worth  his  while  to  keep  track  of  the  Sym¬ 
phony  concerts  given  by  the  great  orchestras  in  our  great 
cities  and  make  an  opportunity,  even  at  considerable 
financial  sacrifice,  to  hear  the  masterpieces  of  the  great 
composers,  such  as  Beethoven’s  Fifth  Symphony,  Tchai¬ 
kovsky’s  “  Pathetic  ”  Symphony  (No.  6),  Wagner’s 
Overture  to  “  Tannhauser  ”  and  the  like.  A  visit  to  New 
York  or  other  orchestra  city,  should  always  schedule 
these  great  musical  opportunities. 

But  a  good  supply  of  well  selected  rolls  for  a  player 
piano  or  records  for  a  talking  machine  will  give  oppor¬ 
tunities  not  to  be  despised  in  getting  an  understanding  of 
the  things  of  musical  art.  Here  is  pure  culture  that  will 
react  upon  the  whole  thinking  and  feeling  man  and 
change  the  very  grain  of  his  nature. 

5.  Formulation  of  Plans  and  Methods 

The  minister  ought,  furthermore,  to  have  a  working 
theory  of  the  methods  by  which  music  can  be  used. 
What  plans  and  methods  can  be  used  to  make  his  con¬ 
gregational  singing  full  and  impressive  will  call  not  only 
for  a  study  of  those  used  elsewhere,  but  of  their  adapta¬ 
tion  to  his  own  particular  congregation.  He  ought  to 
have  a  clear  idea  of  the  value  and  place  and  limitations 
of  the  Gospel  Song. 

The  use  of  responses  by  the  choir,  or  even  by  the  con¬ 
gregation,  ought  to  have  careful  consideration,  and  the 
limits  of  their  practicability  among  his  particular  people 


60 


INTRODUCTION 


ought  to  be  settled.  Just  how  and  to  what  extent 
anthems  will  enrich  his  public  service  should  be  can¬ 
vassed  and  a  definite  practical  conclusion  sought. 

How  to  secure  the  value  of  solo  work  in  his  own  con¬ 
gregation,  and  what  its  character  shall  be,  will  cause  him 
no  little  anxious  thought.  Whether  the  use  of  cantatas, 
or  even  oratorios,  in  enriching  the  spiritual  as  well  as  the 
mental  and  artistic  life  of  his  community,  will  be 
practical,  calls  for  a  careful  canvass  of  the  situation.  It 
may  even  be  an  open  question  whether  he  has  not  a  duty 
to  perform  to  the  musical  culture  of  his  community  by 
the  suggestion  and  fostering  of  concerts  and  recitals. 

6.  Study  of  Musical  Means 

Not  only  the  methods,  but  the  means,  will  need  his 
unceasing  attention. 

(a)  The  Music.  With  the  great  variety  of  hymn 
tunes  with  which  our  hymnals  are  flooded,  likely  to  dis¬ 
tract  his  artistic  and  practical  judgment,  he  will  need  to 
give  them  careful  study  and  reach  a  working  basis  which 
will  enable  him  to  use  only  the  best  for  his  purpose  in 
an  intelligent  way.  An  occasional  hour  spent  with  the 
church  organist  playing  over  the  tunes  in  the  hymnal  will 
be  time  well  spent. 

A  reasonable  attention  to  the  new  hymnals  of  every 
kind  and  size  issued  for  church  service,  for  devotional 
meetings  and  Sunday-school  use,  must  be  given.  The 
new  gospel  songs  that  rise  into  popular  use,  some  tem¬ 
porarily,  others  permanently,  should  be  promptly  noted 
for  early  introduction.  The  vocal  solo  suitable  for  church 
use  that  is  heard  in  some  other  service  may  be  added  to  his 
mental  repertoire  for  suggestion  to  his  own  singers. 

This  is  even  more  true  of  the  anthem  music  which  in 
many  churches  forms  so  important  and  valuable  a  part 


WHAT  A  MINISTEE  SHOULD  KNOW  51 


of  the  service.  Still  more  important  is  his  practical 
knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  various  hymnals  and 
song-books  in  use  among  his  people  and  the  anthem 
books  and  octavos  already  in  possession  of  his  choir. 

Just  as  the  preacher  cultivates  the  homiletical  habit 
until  it  grows  so  automatic  that  it  seems  an  instinct, 
gathering  ideas  and  illustrations  from  every  source,  so 
he  should  cultivate  the  habit  of  mental  alertness  for 
musical  materials  for  the  rest  of  his  service. 

( b )  The  Performers.  The  same  hospitality  of  mind 
should  be  developed  in  the  recognition  of  musical  talent 
among  his  people.  The  budding  young  woman  whose 
voice  is  strengthening  and  enlarging  its  scope  into  a  valu¬ 
able  soprano,  or  into  an  even  more  valuable  alto,  or  the 
young  man  whose  changing  voice  is  setting  into  a  musical 
tenor  or  bass,  should  nowhere  find  such  quick  recogni¬ 
tion  as  from  the  sympathetic  pastor  eager  to  build  up  his 
musical  force. 

The  child  struggling  with  the  violin,  flute,  or  any  other 
musical  instrument,  may  be  a  severe  discipline  to  the 
patience  just  now,  but  the  wise  pastor  gives  encourage¬ 
ment  to  it  as  a  coming  member  of  the  occasional  or  per¬ 
manent  church  orchestra.  Whatever  the  musical  talent, 
the  proper  place  and  opportunity  will  in  due  time  arrive 
for  its  development  and  use. 

7.  This  Study  Should  be  Practical 

As  has  been  suggested  in  a  previous  chapter,  the 
minister’s  study  of  music  ought  to  be  preeminently 
practical.  While  the  impulse  to  consider  it  from  an 
artistic  standpoint  will  be  spontaneous  and  strong,  as  a 
minister,  charged  with  the  responsibility  of  comforting 
and  inspiring  the  souls  in  his  congregation  and  of  helping 
them  in  their  devotions,  it  is  music  as  an  applied  art  that 


52 


INTRODUCTION 


should  appeal  to  him  most  effectively,  for  it  is  helpful¬ 
ness,  not  conformity  to  abstract  ideals,  that  is  the  final 
criterion  of  success. 

Hymns,  and  the  tunes  that  give  them  the  needed  wings, 
are  means  to  definite  ends,  and  are  to  be  judged  and 
valued  in  so  far  as  they  realize  these  desired  ends.  The 
more  clearly  these  ends  are  formulated,  the  more  easily 
can  the  means  be  judged.  Forgetting  the  purpose  in 
view  leads  to  abstract  and  impracticable  ideals  and  stand¬ 
ards,  which,  however  admirable  and  attractive  in  them¬ 
selves,  culminate  in  an  utter  subversion  of  the  ends  that 
after  all  are  so  much  more  important. 

8.  Musical  Talent  Not  Needed 

It  may  seem  to  many  that  such  a  program  of  musical 
education  as  has  been  outlined  above  is  practically  im¬ 
possible.  There  is  an  erroneous  impression  abroad  that 
in  order  to  understand  music  one  must  have  peculiar 
gifts.  Indeed  so  profound  is  this  impression  that  the 
corollary  has  been  drawn  that  any  one  who  understands 
music  must  be  a  peculiar  person  set  apart  from  his  kind. 

While  it  is  true  that  peculiar  talents  are  needed  for 
the  highest  executive  ability  in  music,  and  more  for  crea¬ 
tive  work,  just  as  such  extraordinary  talents  are  needed 
for  writing  the  highest  type  of  poetry,  for  producing  the 
greatest  architectural  designs,  or  in  utilizing  the  strategic 
possibilities  of  an  army,  it  is  also  true  that  any  one  with 
ordinary  intelligence  can  learn  the  rudiments  of  music 
and  understand  at  least  the  mechanical  elements  of  the 
art.1 

1  “  My  grandfather,  a  Methodist  preacher,  learned  to  sing  at 
seventy.  While  his  wife  lived  she  always  led  the  congregational 
singing.  Grandfather  believed  he  couldn’t  sing.  When  she  died 
he  often  found  himself  inconvenienced  by  the  lack  of  some  one  to 


WHAT  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  KNOW  53 


For  a  minister  to  ignore  the  subject  of  music  because 
he  has  no  talent  for  it,  is  as  foolish  as  it  would  be  for 
him  to  refuse  to  study  Greek  or  Hebrew,  or  even  the  use 
of  good  current  English,  because  he  has  no  talent  for 
language  such  as  had  Poe  or  Lanier  or  Stevenson,  those 
wizards  with  magical  power  over  the  English  language. 
He  might  as  well  refuse  to  write  because  he  could  not 
produce  such  calligraphic  examples  as  ornament  the 
studies  of  our  writing-teachers  in  business  colleges. 

It  may  be  true  in  some  cases,  where  the  capacity  for 
detecting  differences  in  pitch  is  wanting,  that  he  may  not 
be  able  to  learn  to  sing  by  note,  or  even  to  learn  a  tune 
by  rote ;  but  even  in  such  extreme  cases,  by  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  mere  intelligence,  such  as  would  be  applied  to  any 
other  subject,  he  can  secure  all  needed  knowledge  pre¬ 
paring  him  to  give  direction  and  oversight  to  the  musical 
work  of  his  church. 

It  ought  to  be  made  a  mark  of  inferiority,  a  thing  of 
discredit  to  any  minister  who  aspires  to  the  management 
of  the  life  of  a  Christian  church,  that  he  should  not  have 
this  rudimental  knowledge  of  notation,  and  a  fairly  clear 
idea  of  the  uses  and  applications  of  music  in  his  work. 

The  demand  is  not  for  a  technical  education  in  a  dif¬ 
ficult  course,  requiring  long  continued  study  leading  to 
expert  knowledge  and  skill.  What  is  wanted  is  an  ab¬ 
sorption  of  musical  facts,  an  apprehension  of  musical 
principles,  and  a  purposeful  study  of  the  applications  of 
music  to  church  work.  The  general  facts  of  music  in  its 
theoretical,  historical,  aesthetic,  and  practical  aspects 
should  be  known  to  the  minister.  That  is  to  say,  he 

lead.  He  determined  to  learn.  He  studied  for  some  six  months 
under  a  vocal  teacher  and  succeeded  in  training  his  quavering  old 
voice  to  correctly  ‘  carry  the  tune/  ” — Leslie  Shannon  Williams  in 
The  Etude. 


54 


INTRODUCTION 


should  have  a  working  knowledge,  ample  for  the  exi¬ 
gencies  and  needs  of  an  efficient  and  capable  pastorate. 

This  does  not  mean  an  encyclopedic,  or  minute  knowl¬ 
edge  such  as  one  might  expect  from  a  professional 
musician.  Indeed,  the  danger  of  a  too  wide  and  micro¬ 
scopic  knowledge  is  that  he  would  lose  his  sense  of  the 
proportionate  value  of  facts  and  principles,  as  so  con¬ 
stantly  happens  to  experts  in  every  line  of  intellectual 
effort.  His  natural  emphasis  of  historical  and  theo¬ 
retical  aspects  might  lead  to  ignoring  practical  consider¬ 
ations,  and  lead  to  a  lack  of  harmony  with  his  musicians. 

There  is  no  need  of  a  great  outlay  of  time  and  effort, 
but  there  are  required  the  open  mind  and  the  observant 
ear,  so  that  with  here  a  little,  and  there  a  little,  the 
minister  is  educating  himself  in  music  and  preparing 
himself  to  apply  it  practically.  By  his  education  in 
youth,  if  it  was  what  it  ought  to  have  been,  by  his 
reading  of  musical  literature,  current  and  permanent, 
by  his  hearing  of  music,  by  his  amateurish  and  halting 
efforts  at  playing  or  singing,  but  above  all  by  the  careful 
observation  of  the  methods  and  plans  by  which  the  re¬ 
sults  may  be  achieved  that  one  may  expect  from  music, 
the  preparation  will  be  obtained  for  an  intelligent  over¬ 
sight  of  the  music  of  the  church. 

That  this  can  be  done  is  proved  by  the  example  of 
Moody.  He  was  no  musician.  Whether  he  had  a  par¬ 
ticle  of  the  artistic  temperament  may  be  doubted.  But 
he  knew  the  power  of  music  in  securing  immediate  prac¬ 
tical  results,  and,  what  is  even  more  important,  he  knew 
what  sort  of  music  would  produce  the  results  he  wanted. 
He  was  one  of  the  best  judges  of  the  practical,  available 
value  of  a  new  gospel  song  to  be  found  in  his  day  and 
generation,  for  his  practical  judgment  was  not  distracted 
by  artistic  considerations. 


WHAT  A  MINISTER  SHOULD  KNOW  55 


They  tell  a  characteristic  story  of  him  at  Mt.  Hermon 
that  ought  to  give  heart  to  the  minister  who  is  least  gifted 
in  music.  He  called  for  the  Long  Meter  Doxology  at 
one  of  their  school  meetings.  The  organist,  who  was 
something  of  a  wag,  played  Yankee  Doodle  in  a  very 
slow  and  sedate  way  instead.  Moody  broke  out  im¬ 
pulsively,  “  I  don’t  know  why  it  is,  but  dear  ‘  Old 
Hundredth  ’  grows  sweeter  every  time  I  hear  it !  ”  The 
assembly  laughed,  and  so  did  Moody  when  some  one 
whispered  the  facts  to  him.  If  a  man  so  musically 
ignorant  as  that  can  transform  the  religious  life  of  two 
nations,  largely  by  the  use  of  simple  gospel  songs,  why 
should  any  of  us  despair  of  achieving  at  least  a  measure 
of  success? 


9.  The  Real  Difficulty 

The  real  difficulty  with  unmusical  ministers  is  not  that 
they  cannot  understand  music  well  enough  to  have  a 
general  oversight  over  the  musical  activities  of  their 
churches,  but  that  they  are  not  spontaneously  interested, 
have  no  inner  urge  to  occupy  their  minds  with  the  sub¬ 
ject.  For  this  not  they,  but  their  ancestors  are  respon¬ 
sible. 

But  they  themselves  are  responsible  if  their  interest  in 
their  own  spiritual  development,  in  their  life-work  and  in 
the  spiritual  success  of  their  parishes  does  not  amply  re¬ 
place  the  lack  of  congenital  musical  impulse.  That  a 
minister  is  uninterested  in  the  musical  work  of  his  church 
argues  that  he  is  lamentably  ignorant  and  obtuse  to  a 
part  of  public  worship  hardly  second  to  his  sermon,  or 
that,  in  his  self-centeredness,  he  cares  only  for  that  part 
of  the  service  in  which  his  own  egotistical  self  is  con¬ 
spicuous. 

The  thoughtful  pastor,  with  his  plans  and  methods 


56 


INTRODUCTION 


sought  and  canvassed,  his  musical  materials  gathered  and 
studied,  the  varied  talents  of  his  people  appreciated  and 
marshalled,  is  ready  to  do  efficient  work,  for  these  are 
his  resources,  these  are  his  musical  tools  with  which  he 
works.  Can  he  expect  to  be  recognized  as  a  skillful 
and  accomplished  workman  if  he  does  not  understand 
their  use?  Altogether  the  musical  side  of  his  calling 
will  be  found  worthy  the  keenest  interest  and  the  most 
earnest  study  of  the  ablest  and'  most  intellectual  minister. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  should  a  minister  be  familiar  with  musical  notation? 

2.  How  does  the  psychology  of  music  interest  a  minister? 

3.  Why  should  the  study  of  the  history  of  musical  develop¬ 
ment  prove  helpful? 

4.  Why  study,  either  privately  or  through  public  performance, 
the  great  musical  compositions,  sacred  and  secular? 

5.  What  is  there  in  the  practical  use  of  music  that  a  minister 
should  know? 

6.  What  two  sides  of  the  musical  means  to  be  employed 
should  engage  a  minister’s  attention? 

7.  In  all  this  study  what  attitude  should  the  minister  take 
towards  music? 

8.  What  is  the  need  of  special  musical  talent? 

9.  In  what  way  was  Moody  an  important  example? 

10.  What  is  the  real  difficulty  among  ministers  generally,  and 
how  can  it  be  met? 


THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL 

SOUNDS 


IV 


THE  PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  This  chapter  and  the  two  succeeding 
it  are  of  supreme  importance.  There  should  not  only  be  recita¬ 
tion,  but  demonstration  from  the  hymnal  or  other  accessible  music 
and  even  blackboard  work  by  individual  students.  Better  omit 
several  chapters  later  in  the  book  than  to  scamp  these  three 
chapters.  As  a  pleasing  and  perhaps  profitable  break  in  class 
routine  secure  the  cooperation  of  some  lively  public  school  music 
supervisor  or  local  director  to  review  the  three  chapters  before 
leaving  them. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Maurice  S.  Logan,  “Musicology," 
Hinds,  Noble  and  Eldridge,  N.  Y. ;  Alex.  Wood,  “The  Physical 
Basis  of  Music,”  Putnam,  N.  Y. ;  Wm,  Pole,  “  The  Philosophy  of 
Music,”  Kegan  Paul,  Trench  &  Co.,  London;  Herman  L.  F. 
Helmholtz,  “  On  the  Sensations  of  Tone,”  Translated  by  A.  J. 
Ellis,  Longmans,  London. 


Before  proceeding  with  the  main  discussions  of  this 
treatise,  some  understanding  must  be  had  of  (a)  the 
philosophy1  of  music,  of  the  underlying  physical  facts, 
and  also  ( b )  of  the  means  used  to  give  them  expression. 
The  extreme  importance  of  a  thorough  canvass  and 
actual  mental  appropriation  of  these  underlying  state¬ 
ments  and  definitions  need  hardly  to  be  stressed. 

Space  forbids  a  review  even  of  the  abstruser  mathe¬ 
matical  investigations  of  sound  already  well  begun  by 
Pythagoras  in  the  sixth  century  before  Christ.  To  any 
one  interested  in  acoustics  there  is  a  rich  literature  open. 

1  The  word  “  philosophy  ”  is  applied  to  the  study  of  the  physical 
facts  underlying  music,  psychology  to  the  study  of  the  reactions 
to  it  of  the  human  organism. 


59 


60  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


i.  Musical  Sounds  * 

Sound  is  a  sensation  produced  by  vibrations  in  the 
air  or  in  more  solid  resilient  substances,  which,  gathered 
by  the  outer  ear,  are  conducted  to  the  nerves  of  the 
inner  ear  and  through  the  auditory  nerves,  and  even 
through  the  sensory  nerve  system,  to  the  brain,  making 
an  impression  there  on  the  perceiving  mind  corresponding 
to  the  nature  of  the  occasion  of  the  vibrations. 

These  vibrations  must  be  produced  by  the  sudden 
application  of  energy  of  some  land, — percussion,  plucking 
or  stroking  of  strings,  sudden  currents  of  air  and  the  like. 

Vibrations  are  transmitted  by  waves  of  different 
lengths  and  force  passing  through  the  air  or  other  elastic 
substances.  These  waves  are  analogous  to  waves  on  the 
surface  of  water,  but  are  in  three  dimensions  instead  of 
one.  The  complete  oscillation,  forward  and  backward, 
is  accounted  a  wave,  but  is  sometimes  called  a  double 
wave. 

The  human  ear  recognizes  these  vibrations  only  within 
certain  limits.  Vibrations  under  16  per  second  and  over 
38,000  per  second  cease  to  be  heard. 

When  these  occasions  of  vibration  act  irregularly, 
noise  is  produced.  When  they  act  regularly,  on  an 
elastic,  homogeneous,  and  symmetrically  defined  or 
shaped  body,  whether  solid  or  aerial,  the  result  is  an 
agreeable  sensation  which  is  called  a  musical  sound. 
Regularity  of  vibration  is  essential  to  musical  sound. 

2.  Variations  of  Vibration 

The  vibrations  of  an  elastic  sounding  body  have  three 
distinct  variations, — (a)  rapidity  of  vibration,  ( b )  extent 
of  vibration,  and  (c)  form  of  vibration.  The  first  is 
recognized  as  “  pitch,”  the  second  as  “  force  ”  or  “  loud- 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  61 


ness,”  the  third  as  “  character  ”  or  “  colour,”  or  “  timbre.” 
All  these  will  depend  on  the  vibrational  character  of  the 
sounding  body  and  of  the  transmitting  medium. 

(a)  The  Pitch  of  Musical  Sound .  The  accepted 
standard  of  pitch  is  C  in  its  different  positions.  C  be¬ 
low  the  bass  staff  has  64  vibrations  per  second,  C  in  the 
second  space  of  the  bass  staff  has  128  vibrations;  C  on 
the  added  line  above  the  bass  staff  and  the  added  line 
below  the  treble  staff,  often  called  middle  C,  has  256 
vibrations;  C  on  the  third  space  of  the  treble  staff  has 
512  vibrations  and  so  on.  It  will  be  noticed  that  the 
vibrations  increase  in  geometrical  ratio,  doubling  with 
each  octave. 

The  figures  given  above  represent  what  is  known  as 
“  philosophical  pitch,”  but  in  actual  performance  there 
is  considerable  variation,  the  vibrations  of  treble  C 
ranging  from  500  to  540  vibrations  per  second  depending 
on  the  age  and  the  locality.  The  French  standard  is 
517  vibrations  per  second  for  treble  C  which  is  now 
used  in  this  country,  where  it  is  known  as  International 
Pitch,  having  been  officially  adopted  by  the  Piano  Manu¬ 
facturers’  Association  of  the  United  States.  Older 
instruments  still  occur  having  the  old  Concert  Pitch  of 
540  vibrations  per  second.  1 

Any  difference  in  the  number  of  vibrations  per  second 
will  produce  a  corresponding  difference  of  pitch.  The 
human  ear  at  its  best  will  recognize  a  difference  of  one- 
fiftieth  of  a  half  step  or  600  distinguishable  sounds  in  an 
octave.  Ordinary  ears  may  easily  distinguish  from  50 
to  100  sounds  in  the  octave. 

( b )  The  Loudness  of  Sound.  As  the  velocity  of  sound 
is  1100  feet  per  second  and  as  the  number  of  vibrations 
of  treble  C  is  512,  we  find  its  invariable  wave  length  to 
be  2.129  feet.  The  difference  between  a  loud  and  soft 


62  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


tone  will  not  be  in  the  length  of  the  wave,  therefore,  but 
in  its  power  or  intensity,  and  depends  on  the  force  em¬ 
ployed  to  produce  the  vibrations.  This  intensity 
diminishes  theoretically  as  the  square  of  the  distance, 
but  in  practice  much  depends  on  the  conditions  of  the 
transmitting  medium. 

(c)  Timbre  or  Tone  Colour.  The  difference  in  the 
quality  or  character  of  musical  sounds  is  apparent  to 
every  normal  ear.  The  violin,  the  flute,  the  drum, — 
each  has  a  distinctive  quality  of  tone.  Until  the  time 
of  Helmholtz’s  study  of  the  problem,  the  reason  for  this 
difference  of  tone  colour  was  unknown.  He  discovered 
that  it  was  due  to  a  difference  in  the  character  of  the 
overtones  associated  with  the  fundamental  tone. 

If  the  lower  overtones  were  prominent  and  the  upper 
overtones  weak,  the  tone  was  smooth  and  mellow, 
perhaps  lacking  in  brilliancy;  if  the  lower  overtones 
were  absent  and  the  higher  prominent,  the  tone  was 
brilliant  and  even  shrill.  The  various  combinations  of 
these  overtones,  low,  medium  and  high,  account  for  the 
difference  of  tone  colour  or  timbre. 

3.  The  Overtones 

These  overtones  are  occasioned  by  the  division  of  the 
vibrating  string,  column  of  air,  or  any  other  vibrating 
body  into  two  or  three  or  four  or  even  more  parts,  each 
of  which,  in  addition  to  the  vibration  of  the  whole  (or 
fundamental  tone),  vibrates  independently,  producing 
an  additional  set  of  vibrations,  or  overtones.  The 
division  into  two  parts  gives  two  overtones,  each  an 
octave  above  the  fundamental.  Actually,  they  produce 
only  one  tone,  the  divisions  only  strengthening  their 
common  tone.  The  division  into  three  parts  gives  an 
overtone  of  a  twelfth,  or  an  octave  plus  a  fifth,  above  the 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  63 


fundamental  tone.  Four  parts  give  an  overtone  two 
octaves  higher.  The  series  goes  on  to  sixteen  parts, 
beyond  which  the  overtones  cannot  be  distinguished  by 
the  most  sensitive  ear,  although  they  undoubtedly  exist. 
By  analysis  of  the  tone  into  its  component  parts,  most 
people  can  distinguish  the  lower  overtones;  but  whether 
they  can  separate  them  or  not,  they  do  perceive  the 
resultant  quality  produced  by  them. 

4.  The  Control  of  Tone  Colour 

The  nature  of  these  overtones  can  be  controlled  to  a 
great  extent  in  the  various  instruments.  The  attractive¬ 
ness  of  tone  of  some  pianos  is  due  to  a  skillful  and 
pleasing  combination  of  them.  The  different  tone  colours 
of  the  stops  of  the  organ  are  produced  by  devices  that 
vary  the  combinations  of  overtones.  The  difference  in 
the  quality  of  tone  in  various  organs  is  due  to  the  varying 
skill  of  their  several  manufacturers.  The  quality  of  a 
human  voice  may  be  greatly  improved  by  a  skillful  voice 
teacher,  changing  the  combinations  of  overtones  pro¬ 
duced  by  the  voice. 

These  overtones  may  be  suppressed  either  in  part  or 
as  a  whole  by  various  devices  and  methods.  The  sup¬ 
pression  of  the  higher  discordant  overtones  adds  to  the 
charm  of  the  tone;  but  if  all  the  overtones  are  removed, 
the  fundamental  tone  becomes  dull  and  lifeless.  Stop¬ 
ping  the  end  of  an  organ  pipe  prevents  almost  all  over¬ 
tones.  Hence  the  Bourdon,  or  the  Stopped  Diapason, 
has  a  hollow,  weak  quality  of  tone  compared  with  a 
stop  with  open  pipes. 

It  is  possible  in  the  piano  to  exclude  the  seventh  and 
ninth  overtones  which  are  inharmonic,  that  is,  dis¬ 
cordant,  and  so  improve  the  tone.  On  some  stops  of 
the  organs  even  the  third  and  fifth  overtones  are  also 


64  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


excluded  as  well  as  the  higher  inharmonic  overtones, 
thus  securing  a  purer  tone. 

By  adding  other  pipes  or  other  instruments  corre¬ 
sponding  in  pitch  to  the  overtones  they  may  be  greatly 
strengthened,  as  in  an  organ  or  orchestra.  In  an  organ 
this  is  done,  in  addition  to  pipes  an  octave  or  two  octaves 
higher  than  the  fundamental  tone,  by  mixtures  con¬ 
taining  twelfths,  seventeenths  and  higher  tones  corre¬ 
sponding  to  the  higher  overtones.  These  add  brilliance 
and  sharpness  to  the  organ.  They  are  found  in  the 
organs  of  Roman  Catholic  churches  rather  than  in  those 
of  Protestants. 

These  sound  waves  of  fundamental  tones  and  over¬ 
tones  are  so  related  mathematically  that  until  the  ex¬ 
treme  upper  overtones  are  reached,  they  coincide  in 
part,  producing  an  exceedingly  complex  tone  wave,  not 
a  series  of  independent  tone  waves.  The  form  of  this 
complex  wave  impinging  on  the  aural  nerve  gives  the 
characteristic  sensation  we  call  timbre  or  tone  colour. 
This  nerve,  however,  has  the  extraordinary  power  of 
analyzing  all  these  compound  waves  and  hearing  them 
separately,  if  the  mind  concentrates  its  attention  upon 
them. 


5.  The  Formation  of  the  Scale 

(a)  Finding  the  Scale.  There  are  more  rather  than 
less  than  50  different  tones  distinguishable  by  the  normal 
ear  between  middle  C  and  treble  C;  which  of  these  shall 
we  select  in  our  series  of  tones  from  one  C  to  the  octave 
above?  The  great  mass  of  them  do  not  seem  to  have 
any  relation  to  each  other  and  are  excluded  from  the 
series  by  human  beings  of  every  age  and  race.  Helm¬ 
holtz  explains  their  exclusion  psychologically :  that  being 
separated  from  each  other  by  very  small  intervals, 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  65 


difficult  to  be  distinguished,  and,  even  when  further 
separated,  without  easily  apprehended  intervals  or  ap¬ 
parent  relation  to  each  other,  the  human  mind  rejects 
these  in  favour  of  the  tones  whose  intervals  are  quickly 
grasped  and  which  have  definite  relations  to  each  other. 

( b )  The  Diatonic  Scale.  The  series  that  has  had  in 
whole  or  in  part  the  almost  unanimous  acceptance  of  the 
human  race  is  what  is  known  as  the  Diatonic  Scale. 


CDEFGABC 


Flutes  discovered  in  Egypt  among  the  objects  of  the 
Bronze  Age,  3000  B.  C.,  were  so  constructed  as  to  pro¬ 
duce  this  series  of  tones. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the  half  steps  occur  between  E 
and  F  and  B  and  C.  The  other  intervals  are  whole 
steps.2 

That  there  are  slight  variations  is  to  be  expected. 
The  difference  between  the  Lydian  Diatonic  Scale  and 
our  own  is  slight  and  is  based  on  harmonic  considerations. 
The  difference  in  the  half  step  between  E  and  F 


half  steps  being  by  so  much  smaller. 


(c)  Reached  by  Scientific  Methods.  The  results  of  the 
musical  instinct  of  the  race  has  found  a  scientific  justi¬ 
fication. 

We  have  found  the  rising  series  of  C’s  have  not  only 

2  The  ancient  nations  and  many  contemporary  savage  tribes 
such  as  the  Bushmen  of  Australia,  begin  their  scales  at  the  top 
and  descend  instead  of  at  the  bottom  and  ascend,  as  do  ours. 


66  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


a  clear  and  definite  mathematical  relation,  but  that  they 
are  concordant,  because  their  several  vibrations  coincide 
and  reinforce  one  another.  In  discussing  the  overtones, 
we  found  the  fifth  and  third  showing  a  somewhat  similar 
mathematical  relation  to  the  fundamental  tone,  being 
concordant  with  it  and  enriching  its  quality.  This  gives 
us  two  tones,  G  and  E,  lying  between  C  and  C  having 
relation  to  them.  Taking  these  tones  as  a  new  basis  of 
relations  we  get  D  and  B.  By  a  reverse  process  we 
secure  A  and  F,  the  rest  of  the  scale. 

(< d )  The  Intervals  of  the  Diatonic  Scale.  The  intervals 
between  the  tones  of  this  scale  are  of  two  kinds,  whole 
steps  and  half  steps.  In  some  nations  and  ages,  there 
have  been  accepted  one-fourth  and  one-third  steps,  but 
they  are  exceptional.  The  order  of  the  tones  in  the 
series  and  the  intervals  between  them  are  as  follows: 

C  whole  step  D  w.  s.  E  half  step  F  w.  s.  G  w.  s.  A  w.  s.  B  h.  s.  C. 

1  23  45678 

The  white  keys  of  the  piano  and  organ  represent  this 
scale  very  tangibly. 

As  we  shall  see  later,  the  scale  did  not  always  begin 
with  C,  but  also  on  D  and  E  and  F  and  G.  The  intervals 
between  these  tones  designated  by  these  letters  always 
remained  the  same,  so  that  these  scales,  or  partial  scales, 
differed  very  remarkably  in  the  location  of  the  half  steps. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  Greeks  and  the  early 
Christian  Church  knew  our  modern  scale  (the  Lydian 
Mode),  but  its  more  serious  musical  leade  s  deprecated 
its  use  as  lascivious ! 

( e )  Importan  e  of  Individual  Notes.  It  must  not  be 
overlooked  that  the  first  note  of  the  scale  is  of  com¬ 
manding  importance.  It  is  the  beginning  and  its  octave 
the  end  of  the  series.  All  the  other  notes  have  their 
relationship  to  the  scale  based  on  their  relationship  to 
the  first  note  or  tonic. 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  67 


The  perfect  and  concordant  relation  to  it  of  the  fifth 
makes  that  note  next  in  importance  and  hence  it  is 
called  the  dominant.  This  was  true  before  the  intro¬ 
duction  of  harmony  which  has  greatly  enhanced  its  im¬ 
portance.  The  fourth,  being  an  inversion  of  the  fifth, 
comes  next  in  importance,  both  melodically  and  har¬ 
monically,  and  hence  is  known  as  the  subdominant. 

6.  Additional  Scales 

(a)  The  Minor  Scale.  In  addition  to  the  above  scale 
on  C  another  scale  based  on  A  is  used. 

A  w.  s.  B  h.  s.  C  w.  s.  D  w.  s.  E  h.  s.  F  w.  s. +h.  s.  G#  h.  s  A 

This  scale  is  called  the  minor  scale  because  the  interval 
between  A  and  C  is  a  minor  third  while  the  preceding  scale 
1  3 

is  called  the  major  scale  because  the  interval  between  C 

i 

and  E  is  a  major  third.  The  minor  scale  given  above  is 
3 

known  as  the  harmonic  minor  scale;  had  the  F  been 
sharped,  it  would  have  been  the  melodic  minor  scale. 

(b)  The  Pentatonic  Scale.  There  is  a  third  scale  still 
in  occasional  use  (though  chiefly  in  antique  folk-songs), 
known  as  the  Pentatonic  Scale. 

C  w.  s.  D  w.  s.  E  w.  s.+h.  s.  G  w.  s.  A  w.  s.+h.  s.  C. 

It  can  be  played  on  the  black  keys  of  the  piano  beginning 
on  Gt>  or  on  the  open  tones  of  wind  instruments.  It  is  a 
survival  of  an  aboriginal  scale  found  all  around  the 
world.  The  Chinese  know  and  use  the  pentatonic  and 
heptatonic  scales,  as  do  also  the  natives  of  Java.  They 
were  based  on  the  open  strings  of  instruments  and 
openings  on  wind  instruments.  It  does  not  follow  that 
the  people  using  the  pentatonic  scale  did  not  know  and 


68  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


use  the  other  two  tones  of  the  diatonic  scale;  but  they 
used  them  as  we  do  the  chromatic  tones  of  the  present 
scale,  always  considering  the  main  scale  essential  and 
the  other  tones  accidental. 

(c)  The  Whole  Step  Scale .  In  recent  years  another 
scale  has  been  introduced  by  composers  like  Debussy 
and  d’lndy,  seeking  new  effects  whose  intervals  con¬ 
sisted  wholly  of  whole  steps,  leaving  out  the  seventh. 

C— D— E— F#— G#— A#— C. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  this  scale,  favoured  by  the 
most  advanced  composers  of  our  day,  was  in  use  among 
the  aborigines  of  Sumatra. 

While  this  scale  makes  possible  unusual  harmonic 
combinations  of  a  nerve-irritating  character,  its  range  of 
expression  is  very  limited  and  the  music  becomes  mo¬ 
notonous  after  the  bizarre  effect  loses  its  novelty. 

(d)  The  Chromatic  Scale.  If  we  proceed  through  the 
octave  between  C  and  C  dividing  the  whole  steps  in  the 
series  into  half  steps,  we  find  five  tones  more  which  are 
not  used  in  the  Diatonic  Scale  based  on  C.  They  are 
represented  by  the  black  keys  on  the  piano.  Hence  we 
have  C— C#— D— D#— E— F— F#— G— G#— A— A#— B 
— C ;  or  in  equable  temperament  tuning,  as  found  in  the 
piano ,  C — D  b — D — E  b — E — F — G  b — G — A  b — A — B  b — 
B — C.  This  series  is  known  as  the  Chromatic  Scale. 
It  is  used  as  a  theoretical  basis  for  the  transposition  of 
scales,  and  episodically  in  actual  music. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  two  fundamental  acquirements  must  be  made  as  a 
preliminary  to  an  intelligent  study  of  music? 

2.  What  is  sound  and  how  does  it  become  musical? 

3.  How  do  sound  waves  differ  from  waves  in  water? 

4.  What  are  the  limitations  of  hearing? 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  69 


5.  What  are  the  three  variations  in  sound  vibrations? 

6.  What  is  the  accepted  standard  of  pitch  and  what  its  vibra¬ 
tions  in  its  different  positions? 

7.  What  is  International  Pitch?  Concert  Pitch?  What  is  the 
difference  of  vibration  for  treble  C? 

8.  What  variations  of  pitch  can  be  distinguished  by  a  trained 
ear?  What  by  an  ordinary  ear? 

9.  What  variations  in  the  vibration  affects  the  loudness  of  a 
tone? 

10.  Explain  the  difference  in  tone  quality  or  colour. 

11.  How  are  overtones,  or  partial  tones,  produced? 

12.  Can  these  overtones  be  controlled,  and  what  is  the  result? 

13.  What  is  the  nature  of  a  tone  wave  modified  by  overtones? 

14.  How  was  the  scale  formed? 

15.  What  is  the  Diatonic  Scale?  What  are  its  intervals  and 
how  are  they  placed? 

16.  What  are  the  more  important  notes  of  the  scale? 

17.  What  other  scales  are  used?  How  do  they  differ  from  the 
Diatonic  Scale? 


V 


THE  PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND 

( Continued ) 


Class  Room  Suggestions:  In  the  study  of  the  transposition  of 
scales  and  of  intervals,  it  will  be  wise  to  have  some  competent 
person  play  the  notes  in  order  to  teach  the  ear.  Blackboard  work 
will  also  be  useful  in  training  the  eye  to  observe. 


7.  Transposition  of  the  Scales 

If  we  desire  to  construct  a  regular  major  scale  on  any 
other  tone  than  C,  we  find  it  impossible  on  the  white 
keys,  for  the  half  steps  do  not  occur  at  the  right  places, 
i.e.y  between  3  and  4  and  7  and  8.  But  if  we  correct 
the  difficulty  by  the  use  of  the  chromatic  tones,  i.e.y  the 
black  keys,  the  way  is  easy. 

Basing  the  scale  on  G  we  have  the  following: 


G  w.  s.  A  w.  s.  B  h.  s.  C  w.  s.  D  w.  s.  E  w.  s.  F #  h.  s.  G, 


1234567  8 

using  one  of  the  black  keys,  F#.  The  signature  is  one 


sharp. 


fj 


Seeking  the  scale  on  D  the  result  is  as  follows: 


D— E— F#— G— A— B— C#— D, 
123  4567  8 


using  two  black  keys,  F#  and  C#. 


sharps. 


The  scale  on  A  becomes: 


The  signature  is  two 


A  w.  s.  B  w.  s.  C#  h.  s.  D  w.  s.  E  w.  s.  F#  w.  s.  G#  h.  s.  A. 

12345678 


70 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  71 


The  signature  is  three  sharps. 


fj 


Building  the  scale  on  E  we  secure: 

E  w.  s.  F#  w.  s.  G#  h.  s.  A  w.  s.  B  w.  s.  C#  w.  s.  D#  h.  s.  E. 
12345678 


The  signature  is  four  sharps. 


ft 


m 


ft 


& 


The  scale  proceeding  from  B  is  as  follows: 


B  w.  s.  C#  w.  s.  D#  h.  s.  E  w.  s.  F#  w.  s.  G#  w.  s.  A#  h.  s.  B. 
12345678 

The  signature  is  five  sharps. 

The  scales  may  be  built  on  the  sharp  chromatic  tones 
(semi-tones)  of  the  C  scale,  those  foreign  to  its  normal 
scale,  but  they  become  complicated  in  notation  and  are 
rarely  used  except  in  passing  phrases. 

The  foregoing  scales  have  regarded  the  five  chromatic 
tones  as  sharps.  Considering  them  as  flats,  the  following 
scales  may  be  constructed. 

That  on  F  is  as  follows : 


F  w.  s.  G  w.  s.  A  h.  s.  Bb  w.  s.  C  w.  s.  D  w.  s.  E  h.  s.  F. 


1234  5678 


The  signature  is  one  flat. 


In  flats  the  flat  chromatic  tones  appear  as  the  tonics 
of  regular  major  scales. 

Beginning  on  Bb  we  get  the  following  scale: 


Bb  w.  s.  C  w.  s.  D  h.  s.  Eb  w.  s.  F  w.  s.  G  w.  s.  A  h.  s.  Bb. 
1  2  34  5688 


EPZ - 

D 

I* 

1 

-.k 

F-— 

The  signature  is  two  flats. 


72  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


The  scale  on  Eb  works  out  as  follows: 

Eb  w.  s.  F  w.  s.  G  h.  s.  Ab  w.  s.  Bb  w.  s.  C  w.  s.  D  h.  s.  Eb. 
i  2  3  4  5  67 


8 


The  signature  is  three  flats. 


— 0— f? - 

■CV— 1> - - 

: 

_ 

The  use  of  A b  as  tonic  produces  the  following: 

Ab  w.  s.  Bb  w.  s.  C  h.  s.  Db  w.  s.  Eb  w.  s.  F  w.  s.  G  h.  s.  Ab. 
1  2  34  5  678 


The  signature  is  four  flats. 


fj 


Using  Db  as  basis  of  a  scale  yields  the  following: 

Db  w.s.  Eb  w.  s.  F  h.  s.  Gb  w.  s.  Ab  w.s.  Bb  w.s.  C  h.s.  Db. 
1  2345678 


The  signature  is  five  flats. 


The  scale  of  Gb  is  as  follows: 

Gb  w.  s.  Ab  w.  s.  Bb  h.s.  Cb  w.s.  Db  w.s.  Eb  w.s.  F  h.s.  Gb. 
1  2345678 


The  signature  is  six  flats. 


The  notation  and  playing  of  this  scale  is  so  compli¬ 
cated  that  it  is  rarely  used  except  in  passing  phrases. 
The  Cb  on  an  instrument  is  the  same  as  B. 


8.  Intervals 

These  scales  are  used  as  melodic  measuring  rods  to 
mark  the  position  of  each  individual  note  composing 
them.  The  difference  of  pitch  between  any  two  is 
called  an  interval.  As  these  intervals  differ,  they  have 
separate  names. 

The  second  is  the  distance 
between  two  consecutive  notes 
in  the  scale, — C  to  D,  or  F  to 
G,  for  instance. 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  73 


A  major  second  is  a  full  step. 
C  to  D,  or  A  to  B. 


A  minor  second  is  a  half  step.  C#  to  D,  or  E  to  F. 


An  augmented  second  con¬ 
sists  of  one  whole  step  and  a 
half  step.  C  to  D#,  or  F  to  G#. 

The  third  is  the  interval  be¬ 
tween  alternate  notes  such  as 
C  to  E,  or  G  to  B. 

The  major  third  consists  of 
two  whole  steps.  C  to  E,  or 
F  to  A. 


The  minor  third  consists  of 
a  whole  step  and  a  half  step. 
C  to  Eb,  or  B  to  D. 

A  diminished  third  consists 
of  two  major  half  steps.  C# 
to  Eb.  or  D#  to  F. 

A  perfect  fourth  consists  of 
two  whole  steps  and  a  half 
step.  C  to  F,  or  G  to  C. 

An  augmented  fourth  consists 
of  three  whole  steps.  C  to  F#, 
or  E  to  A#. 

A  diminished  fourth  consists 
of  one  whole  step  and  two 
half  steps.  C#  to  F,  or  E  to  Ab. 


£ 


<5> 


i 


A  perfect  fifth  consists  .of 
three  whole  steps  and  one  half 
step.  D  to  A,  or  G  to  D. 

An  augmented  fifth  consists  of 
four  whole  steps.  C  to  G#,  or 
F  to  C#. 

A  diminished  fifth  consists  of 
two  whole  steps  and  two  half 
steps.  C#  to  G,  or  D  to  Ab. 


f— - - 

- 

1  y 

fr 

Y  S> 

.  ^ - 

LS 

T  

74  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


A  major  sixth  consists  of  four 
whole  steps  and  one  half  step. 
C  to  A,  or  G  to  E. 

A  minor  sixth  consists  of 
three  whole  steps  and  two  half 
steps.  E  to  C,  or  G  to  Eb. 

An  augmented  sixth  consists 
of  five  whole  steps.  C  to  A#, 
or  F  to  D#. 

A  major  seventh  consists  of 
five  whole  steps  and  one  half 
step.  C  to  B,  or  G  to  F#. 

A  minor  seventh  consists  of 
four  whole  steps  and  two  half 
steps.  G  to  F,  or  A  to  G. 

A  diminished  seventh  consists 
of  three  whole  steps  and  three 
half  steps.  C#toBb,  or  F#toEb- 

A  perfect  octave  consists  of 
five  whole  steps  and  two  half 
steps.  C  to  C,  or  G  to  G. 

An  augmented  octave  consists 
of  six  whole  steps  and  one  half 
step.  C  to  C#,  or  D  to  D#. 

A  diminished  octave  consists 
of  four  whole  steps  and  three 
half  steps.  D  to  Db  or  G  to  Gb. 

A  major  ninth  consists  of  six 
whole  steps  and  two  half  steps. 
C  to  D  an  octave  above,  or  G 
to  A  an  octave  above. 

A  minor  ninth  consists  of  five 
whole  steps  and  three  half 
steps.  C  to  Db  an  octave 
above,  or  G  to  Ab  an  octave 
above. 


The  nomenclature  for  greater  intervals  follows  the 
rules  already  exemplied. 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  75 


9.  The  Inversion  of  Intervals 

These  intervals  may  be  inverted  by  proceeding  down 
as  from  C  to  G  below  with  the  following  results: 

The  seconds  become  sevenths; 

The  thirds  become  sixths; 

The  fourths  become  fifths; 

The  fifths  become  fourths; 

The  sixths  become  thirds; 

The  sevenths  become  seconds. 

It  will  be  noted  that  a  minor  interval  is  a  half  step 
less  than  a  major,  and  a  diminished  interval  a  half  step 
less  than  a  minor  or  perfect  interval.  The  major 
intervals  by  this  inversion  become  minor  and  the  minor 
major;  the  augmented  become  diminished,  and  the 
diminished  augmented. 

10.  Melody 

A  melody  is  any  series  of  notes  of  the  scale  having 
design  and  expressing  a  musical  idea.  Notes  taken 
merely  at  random  do  not  constitute  a  musical  idea,  for 
they  express  nothing  and  show  none  of  the  relationship 
constituting  a  design.1 

A  melody  does  not  necessarily  have  form, — a  be¬ 
ginning,  a  middle  and  an  end.  The  old  recitatives  of 
the  Hebrews,  Egyptians,  Greeks  and  the  Early  Church 
were  formless  and  vague,  but  were  none  the  less  melodies. 

1  Bach  wrote  a  fugue  on  the  letters  of  his  name  B*2,  A,  C,  H 
(Germans  use  H  for  B  natural),  a  theme  in  itself  hardly  deserv¬ 
ing  the  name  of  melody,  for  aside  from  the  extrinsic  considera¬ 
tion  of  personality,  there  is  no  expressional  value  and  no  inherent 
design.  The  composition  had  interest  as  a  tour  de  force ,  showing 
the  great  contrapuntal  master’s  skill,  rather  than  as  a  genuine 
musical  composition,  harking  back  to  the  mediaeval  polyphonal 
puzzles. 


76  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


The  endless  melodies  of  Wagner  are  another  case  in 
point. 

Not  every  melody  is  a  tune,  although  every  tune  is  a 
melody.  Music  may  be  very  melodious,  like  Wagner’s 
“  Waldweben  ”  in  “  Siegfried,”  and  yet  be  tuneless,  for  a 
tune  is  a  melody  cast  into  a  definite  form,  having  a 
definite  tonality  or  key,  and  a  definite  number  of  meas¬ 
ures  symmetrically  arranged,  and  having  imperfect  and 
perfect  cadences  to  make  the  relation  of  the  different 
parts  clear.  A  melody  may  have  only  the  length  of  a 
measure,  nothing  but  a  phrase,  while  a  tune  generally 
has  four  measures  or  multiples  of  four.  It  must  have  a 
unity  growing  out  of  the  repetition  of  its  fundamental 
design  in  a  symmetrical  way  and  in  its  balance  of 
rhythm  as  well. 

ii.  Rhythm 

There  are  two  elements  in  rhythm,  time  and  the 
regularly  recurring  accent  or  stress  on  certain  tones 
that  marks  its  progress  in  time.  The  nervous  system 
responds  to  these  recurring  accents,  for  each  of  them  is 
a  shock.  The  nervous  effect  will  depend  on  the  force 
of  the  extra  stress  on  the  accented  note;  the  harder  the 
beat  of  the  drum,  the  more  the  nervous  excitement 
grows.  Another  element  in  the  nervous  effect  is  the 
frequency  of  these  nervous  shocks.  The  greater  the 
speed  the  more  exciting  the  rhythm. 

Rhythm  is  inherent  in  the  human  mind.  Into  an  un¬ 
marked  regular  succession  of  equal  sounds  the  mind 
imports  a  rhythm,  as  in  the  ticking  of  a  clock  or  the 
clicking  of  the  rails  of  equal  length  under  the  wheels  of 
a  flying  train.  It  is  the  same  impulse  that  leads  men 
to  count  by  tens  or  by  dozens,  or  to  measure  distance 
by  miles  or  kilometers.  There  are  rhythms  in  human 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  77 


speech,  and  in  prose,  as  well  as  in  poetry.  When  we 
speak  of  a  smooth  style,  we  not  only  include  the  clearly 
evident  interrelations  of  words  and  phrases,  but  also  the 
smoothly  regular  rhythmical  flow  of  words,  whether 
sounded  aloud  or  merely  followed  in  thought. 

It  is  not  only  one  of  the  charms  of  music,  but  one  of 
its  appeals  to  the  human  nerves  that  its  tones  follow 
each  other  in  a  regularly  recurring  way.  Until  a 
rhythmical  design  can  be  injected  into  constantly  but 
irregularly  occurring  sounds  they  are  actually  distressing 
to  the  nerves,  and  we  construct  a  rhythmical  series  out 
of  them  in  sheer  self-defense. 

There  are  two  fundamental  rhythms  in  music,  in  duple 
and  triple  time.  Duple  rhythm  accents  every  other 

note  whether  in  2/2,  2/4,  4/4,  2/8,  or  4/8  time. 

> 


> 


t 


$ 


1 — 


±=t 


■Z5>- 


It  matters  not  whether  the  accent  is  on  the  first  or  the 
second  note. 

>  >  > 

i 


> 


&- 


or 


iii^ 


> 


3=2 


t 


In  the  ancient  3/4  time,  it  was  often  essentially  duple  for 

is  but  emphasizing  the  ac¬ 
cented  note  a  little  more. 


h  $ 

- * - 

m 

- 0 - 

- 1 - 

L| - , - 

-P - P - 

1= - t=: 

Triple  rhythm  stresses  one  note  out  of  a  series  of 
three,  whether  in  3/2,  3/4,  or  3/8  time. 

>  >  >  -4—  ^ 


> 

3= 


'-zt 


m 


78  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


Here  again  it  is  possible  for  tbe  accent  to  be  placed  on 
either  one  of  the  three,  as  the  foregoing,  or 


f3 

f  -  *  ■  4 

> 

•  i~q=rj- 

r-4 - - 

4 

a=£= 

-t— 

¥  •  -1 

-  - A - j— 

L# — tt 

or 


- 0 - 

> 

-*  — j '  i~ 

-j-  !■—. 

n 

■“■j 

T 

1 

£-  ;  it 

3  » — q- 

- 0 - 

*  -g— 

tj — jJ 

Then  there  are  compound  rhythms  made  up  of  the 
duple  and  triple  time  as  in  6/8  and  12/8. 


Here  are  two  beats  to  the  measure  with  the  accent  on 
the  first,  and  in  so  far  it  is  duple  time;  but  under  each 
beat  there  are  three  tones  with  the  accent  on  the  first 
of  each  three  which  is  triple  time.  In  9/8  time  we  have 
a  double  triple  time  and  in  12/8  we  have  duple  time 
again  with  subordinate  triple  time.  A  still  more  com¬ 
plicated  rhythm  is  5/4  or  5/8  time  where  half  the 
measure  is  duple  and  the  other  half  triple  time.  This 
is  rarely  used. 

But  this  does  not  by  any  means  exhaust  the  rhythmical 
possibilities.  There  is  almost  infinite  variety  secured 
by  breaking  up  the  notes  within  the  measure  into  shorter 

notes.  As  example,  we  have  in 
duple  time 


or  in  4/4  time 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  79 


The  more  intricate  these  rhythmical  variations,  the 
more  difficult  they  are  to  follow,  and,  consequently,  the 
less  pleasing  they  will  be  to  the  untrained  ear;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  nervous  system  and  mind  trained  to 
analyze  and  so  comprehend  these  complicated  series  of 
nervous  shocks  will  take  pleasure  in  them. 


12.  Form 

Out  of  the  same  impulse  of  the  human  mind,  which 
injects  rhythm  into  regularly  recurring  sounds,  grows 
the  organization  of  the  recurring  notes  first  into  a  phrase, 


i 


ua~r 


t 


then  into  a  period, 


± 


-0-0 


x- 

f-iM - — • 


apt 


t7 

and  so  on  into  more  elaborate  forms. 

While  by  no  means  peremptory,  the  form  of  a  com¬ 
position  is  based  on  a  unit  of  four  measures  whose 
multiples  outline  the  form  of  the  composition.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  vocal  music,  for  in  instrumental 
music  the  form  is  much  more  free.  The  song  form  is 
that  used  in  most  sacred  music.  The  primary  melody 
is  developed  in  eight  or  sixteen  measures;  a  second 
melody  in  a  related  key  and  in  probably  different  time 
for  the  sake  of  contrast,  is  given  in  eight  or  sixteen  or 


80  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


even  thirty-two  measures;  this  is  followed  by  a  return 
to  the  primary  melody  in  the  original  key,  and  time  in 
eight  or  sixteen  measures.  This  model  is  by  no  means 
rigidly  observed,  as  the  second  movement  may  be  re¬ 
placed  by  two  subordinate  movements  and  the  closing 
movement  may  contain  material  not  found  in  the  first. 

13.  Harmony 

As  we  shall  see  later  the  ancients  did  not  cultivate 
harmony,  but  sang  and  played  only  the  melody  in  unison. 
Harmony  is  a  comparatively  modern  form  of  music,  not 
much  over  four  hundred  years  old. 

Harmony  is  the  resultant  of  sounding  tones  of  different 
pitch  at  the  same  time.  Certain  tones  so  sounded  are 
concordant,  that  is,  are  agreeable  to  the  ear.  Other 
tones  when  sounded  together  are  discordant,  that  is, 
they  are  disagreeable  or  painful. 

Tones  related,  as  are  the  fundamental  tone  and  its 
lower  overtones,  are  concordant.  Tones  not  so  related 
are  discordant.  The  tones  separated  by  the  “perfect” 
intervals,  the  fifth  and  the  fourth,  are  most  concordant. 
The  thirds  and  sixths  are  less  so,  but  are  still  recognized 
as  concordant. 

The  foundation  of  harmony  lies  in  these  concordant 
tones;  but  the  discords  have  an  important  place,  as,  in 
the  first  place,  they  provide  contrast  and  piquancy  to 
the  concords,  and,  in  the  second  place,  serve  as  tran¬ 
sitions  from  one  concordant  chord  to  another.  While 
they  irritate  the  nerves  temporarily,  by  that  irritation 
they  stimulate  them  and  make  them  more  susceptible. 
Concords,  unless  modified  by  rhythm  and  speed,  calm 
the  nerves  and  express  serenity  and  peace.  Discords 
express  passion,  fear,  horror,  as  they  irritate  and  distress 
the  nerves. 


PHYSICAL  ELEMENT  IN  MUSICAL  SOUND  81 


i.  The  fundamental  chord  is  the  triad:  the  tonic,  the 

— p . fF^t 

third  and  the  fifth,  g? — If  the  third 


— tr 

&—1 

■  £? 

%  .. 

- 

% 

-W  i 

is  a  minor  third  we  have  the 
minor  triad. 


—y 

<2  .. 

- 

-£2  .. 

<2 

2.  These  triads  may  be  built  upon  any  note  of  the 
scale. 


The  major  triads  are  based  on  r~-j9- - 

C,  F,  G,  or  on  i,  4  and  5  of  any 
transposed  scale.  LtJ  -&r 


r~tt  . 

•  72 

L  /?l\ 

72 

• '  0  —  ■  ■ 

J, - J J 

T 

X 

.  72.  "  .. 

./i 

_ 

X  % 

-Li 

2  & 

transposed 

The  minor  triads  are  based  on 
D,  E,  and  A,  or  on  2,  3,  and  6  of 
any  transposed  scale. 

The  triad  based  on  B  or  on  7  of  any  transposed  scale 
is  a  diminished  triad ,  :fe— g>— j[  because  its  fifth  is  a 


— 

i  .g  :: 

diminished  fifth. 

3.  These  triads  may  take  three  positions,  the  original 


based  on  the  tonic, 


- T. 

^ 

h - (g - ■■ 

t 

the  third 


; 

L  72  \ 

:% 

,  the  inversions  based  on 

£L 


,  or  on  the  fifth 


:SE iy 


As  the 


colour  value  of  these  inversions  is  quite  different,  they 
add  to  the  movement  and  the  variety  of  the  harmonic 
development. 

4.  The  passing  from  one  key  or  tonality  to  another  in 
the  course  of  a  composition  is  called  a  modulation ,  and  is 
indicated  by  the  use  of  sharps  or  flats  as  accidentals, 
changing  the  scale  as  may  be  required. 

Space  forbids  a  discussion  of  the  rules  for  the  progres¬ 
sion  of  the  chords.  In  passing,  it  may  be  said  that 


82  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


consecutive  octaves  and  fifths  with  certain  exceptions 
are  forbidden,  for  reasons  both  acoustical  and  aesthetic. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  May  the  Diatonic  Scale  be  based  on  any  other  letter  than 
C?  If  so,  how  can  it  be  done? 

2.  Give  the  letters  of  the  scale  and  their  intervals  when 
based  on  G,  on  D,  on  A,  on  E,  on  B,  and  their  respective 
signatures. 

3.  Give  the  letters  of  the  scale  and  their  intervals  when 
based  on  F,  on  B  flat,  on  E  flat,  on  A  flat,  on  D  flat,  on  G  flat, 
and  their  respective  signatures. 

4.  What  is  an  interval? 

5.  Give  the  names  of  the  intervals  up  to  and  including  the 
fifth. 

6.  Give  the  names  of  the  rest  of  the  intervals. 

7.  What  changes  occur  when  intervals  are  inverted? 

8.  What  is  the  difference  between  a  melody  and  a  tune? 

9.  What  are  the  two  elements  of  rhythm  ? 

10.  What  two  fundamental  rhythms  are  there  in  music? 

11.  What  are  compound  rhythms? 

12.  How  are  further  rhythmical  variations  secured? 

13.  What  is  the  basis  of  form? 

14.  What  is  the  usual  unit  in  form? 

15.  Give  the  usual  model  of  a  simple  vocal  composition. 

16.  What  is  harmony? 

17.  What  are  concords  and  discords,  and  the  acoustical  basis 
of  their  separate  character? 

18.  What  is  the  fundamental  chord? 

19.  State  the  three  kinds  of  triads  and  their  difference. 

20.  Give  the  three  positions  of  these  triads. 

21.  What  is  modulation? 

22.  What  consecutive  intervals  are  forbidden? 


VI 


MUSICAL  NOTATION 

Supplementary  Reading:  Any  book  of  Musical  Elements: 
Hymnal ;  miscellaneous  vocal  and  instrumental  music. 

The  progress  of  musical  development  was  delayed 
thousands  of  years  by  the  lack  of  a  method  of  expressing 
musical  facts  and  ideas  on  the  written  page.  When  the 
musical  notation  began  to  be  somewhat  adequate  the 
development  of  the  science  and  art  of  music  was  greatly 
accelerated*  for  the  progress  of  a  generation  or  of  an 
individual  could  be  passed  on  as  a  starting  point  for  the 
next  generation  in  a  concrete  and  visible  form.  More¬ 
over,  an  idea  lying  unexpressed  in  the  mind  is  by  no 
means  as  proliferous  as  one  objectivized  and  made 
visible  on  paper. 

In  a  later  chapter  the  slow  and  laborious  path  of  the 
development  of  notation  will  be  followed  and  its  diffi¬ 
culties  made  plain.  We  shall  then  better  appreciate  the 
value  and  importance  of  our  heritage  of  musical  notation. 

There  are  three  elements  in  music  which  need  definite 
formulation  and  notation:  Pitch,  Time,  and  Expression. 

i.  The  Notation  of  Pitch 

Notes  are  symbols  of  sound.  ®  J  J  ^  repre¬ 
sent  each  an  individual  sound.  Rests  represent  silence, 
^  etc.  It  is  to  be  remembered  that  it 

is  the  head  of  these  notes  that  represents  sounds. 

83 


&4  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


The  problem  is  to  represent  the  exact  pitch  of  these 
sounds  to  be  noted.  This  is  done  by  means  of  a  staff 
zz  consisting  of  five  lines  with  short  added 

- _  lines,  called  leger  lines ,  above  and  below. 

■ —  — ~  Each  line  and  space  represents  a  different 

pitch. 

The  exact  pitch  is  established  by  a  sign  at  the  beginning 
called  a  Clef. 

There  are  three  clefs  in  general  use : 


(a)  The  G  Clef.  The  G  Clef 


II 


is  so  called 


because  the  horizontal  line  that  bisects  its  circular  curve 
is  established  as  representing  G,  a  fifth  above  Middle  C. 
This  establishes  the  other  letters  and  their  corresponding 
pitches  as  well,  and  we  have  the  following: 

:E~?zzii 


By  adding  lines  above  and  below,  we  get  the  following: 

„  r  D 

.a:  -B.  Ql  z= 


zvtzfzFzIi 


—  -71  B 
G  A 


-r:-D- E 


-Ad?- 


^TD-ErFr 


(b)  The  F  Clef.  The  P  Clef  is  so  called 


because  the  line  passing  through  the  dot  at  the  top  is 
established  as  representing  F,  the  fifth  below  Middle  C. 
The  following  staff  with  an  F  clef  indicates  the  pitch  of 
tones  below  Middle  C. 


__ P_G  —A: 


-c- 


D  -E-  F 


B- 


D=Ez=5 


:C —\L~ 


_ pmG: 


MUSICAL  NOTATION 


85 


(c)  The  C  Clef . 


The  C  Clef 


~fc: 

] 

ft 

! 

is  so  called 


because  it  establishes  Middle  C.  While  the  F  clef  is 
permanent  and  the  G  clef  is  rarely  changed,  the  C 
clef  is  movable  to  adopt  the  staff  to  the  range  of  dif¬ 
ferent  voices  and  different  instruments.  The  tenor 


voices  still  use  the  C  clef  on  the  third  space 


some  publishers,  however,  with  a  strange  persistence  in 
error,  use  the  G  clef  for  the  tenor,  although  it  is  an 
octave  too  high.  In  instrumental  notation  the  C  clef 
has  still  other  positions:  violoncello  and  trombone  on 
the  fourth  line,  and  viola  on  the  third. 

When  the  C  clef  is  on  the  third  space  the  lines  and 
spaces  have  the  same  letters  as  when  the  G  clef  is  used, 
but  an  octave  lower. 

(d)  The  Range  of  Human  Voices .  The  range  of  the 
human  voice  is  covered  by  the  G  clef  and  the  F  clef,  as 


nay  be  seen  from  the  following  chart : 

Soprano. 

Tenor.  | 

r-9- - r=- -  ■■  '  "1= - =3 - 

b  — — - ~ =1— - trzC: 


pep  "  "  d-ke  f  - 

|  - - 

- -i 

— 

-  :  —  a 

F  G-A  - 1 - - - 

- — y 

Ba«.  1 

(e)  Sharps  and  Flats.  The  foregoing  has  been  con¬ 
fined  to  the  diatonic  tones  of  the  scale  of  C.  If  we  wish 
to  use  the  chromatics,  C#  (Db),  D#  (Eb),  F#  (Gb),  G# 
(Ab)  and  A#  (Bb)  we  must  use  the  two  signs  already  in¬ 
dicated,  the  sharp  (#)  which  indicates  a  tone  a  half  step 
higher,  or  the  flat  (b)  which  indicates  a  tone  a  half  step 
lower. 

Sharps  and  flats  are  used  at  the  beginning  of  a  com¬ 
position  or  movement  and  are  called  signatures ,  and  are 
used  to  indicate  the  transposed  keys. 


86  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


No  signature,  the  key  of  C. 
One  sharp,  the  key  of  G. 
Two  sharps,  the  key  of  D. 
Three  sharps,  the  key  of  A. 
Four  sharps,  the  key  of  E. 
Five  sharps,  the  key  of  B. 


One  flat,  the  key  of  F. 
Two  flats,  the  key  of  Bb. 
Three  flats,  the  key  of  Eb. 
Four  flats,  the  key  of  Ab. 
Five  flats,  the  key  of  Db. 
Six  flats,  the  key  of  Gb. 


These  sharps  and  flats  in  the  signature  affect  every  note 
in  every  octave  on  the  letter  so  sharped  or  flatted. 

When  sharps  and  flats  and  naturals  are  used  in  the 
course  of  music  for  modulation  or  passing  chromatic 
tones  they  are  called  accidentals .  Their  value  is  con¬ 
fined  to  the  line  or  space  on  the  staff  on  which  they  occur 
and  to  the  measure  in  which  they  appear.  The  only 
exception  is  when  a  note  so  modified  is  connected  by  a 


tie  to  the  first  note  of  the  next  measure,  when  the 

force  of  the  accidental  is  continued. 

If  it  is  desired  to  neutralize  such  an  accidental  on  the 
line  or  space  and  in  the  measure  in  which  it  is  used  the 
natural  (bj)  is  used.  When  the  signature  is  in  sharps, 
the  natural  as  an  accidental  has  the  effect  of  a  flat; 
when  in  flats,  the  value  of  a  sharp. 

Cautionary  accidentals  are  occasionally  used  where 
there  is  danger  of  the  force  of  a  previous  accidental  being 
overlooked.  But  they  are  frequently  overdone,  partic¬ 
ularly  in  European  music. 

(/)  Absolute  and  Relative  Pitch.  The  letters  indicate 
absolute  pitch:  Middle  C  is  always  middle  C,  no  matter 
in  what  scale  or  part  it  appears. 

Relative  pitch,  indicating  the  position  of  a  note  by 
the  various  scales,  is  notated  by  the  numerals,  i,  2,  3,  4, 
5,  6,  7,  8,  or  by  the  Italian  syllables,  do,  re,  mi,  fa,  sol, 
la,  si,  do.  The  “do”  is  replaced  by  “ut”  by  the  French 
and  “si”  by  “ti”  by  Americans.  From  “mi”  to  “fa”  and 


MUSICAL  NOTATION 


87 


from  “si”  to  “do”  are  half  steps.  The  intervals  between 
the  other  syllables  are  whole  steps.  When  an  accidental 
occurs  the  name  of  the  syllable  is  changed.  In  the 
case  of  sharps  from  do  to  di  (dee),  re  to  ri,  fa  to  fi,  sol 
to  si  and  la  to  li.  In  flats  the  change  is  from  do  to  de 
(day),  re  to  ra,  mi  to  me,  sol  to  se,  la  to  le  and  si  to  te. 
By  firmly  associating  these  intervals  with  their  corre¬ 
sponding  syllables  until  the  action  becomes  unconscious 
or  automatic,  the  singing  by  note  becomes  as  easy  as 
reading  any  other  print. 

(g)  Notation  of  the  Several  Octaves  of  Absolute  Pitch. 
There  are  several  systems  of  notating  by  letter  the  pitch 
of  the  several  octaves.  Here  are  some  of  them: 


cc— 

c— 

c — 

c'— 

c" 

etc. 

c— 

c — 

c'— 

c2 — 

c3 

etc. 

c— 

c2— 

C3— 

C4— 

C5 

etc. 

c— 

c° — 

c'— 

c" — 

c'" 

The  letters  following  in  each  octave  conform  to  its 
initial  C.  The  pity  is  that  some  method  has  not  been 
standardized. 


2.  The  Notation  of  Time 

The  notation  of  the  time  value  of  notes  is  important 
from  two  considerations :  the  proper  placing  of  the  accents 
which  mark  the  rhythm  and  the  facilitating  of  the 
singing  or  the  playing  of  several  voices  or  parts  in  perfect 
coordination. 

(a)  The  Length  of  the  Notes.  The  length  of  the  notes 
is  indicated  partly  in  one  way,  partly  in  another:  the 
shape  of  the  notes,  as  for  the  whole  note,  •  for  the 
quarter  note,  and  the  stem  and  flags  associated  with 


88  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


them,  J  for  a  half  note,  J  for  a  quarter  note,  J*  for 

an  eighth  note,  ^  for  a  sixteenth  note,  £  for  a  thirty- 
secondth  note,  etc. 

The  notation  of  rests  is  somewhat  similar:  •  for  a 
whole  rest,  *  for  a  half  rest,  x  for  a  quarter  rest,  1 

for  an  eighth  rest,  ^  for  a  sixteenth  rest,  fj  for  a 
thirty-secondth  rest.  A  dot  immediately  following  a 
note  or  rest  adds  one-half  to  its  length:  J.  equals  a 


half  plus  a  quarter;  J .  equals  a  quarter  plus  an  eighth; 

JN.  equals  an  eighth  plus  a  sixteenth.  The  same  is 
true  of  rests. 

The  stems  may  extend  up  or  down  and  the  flags  right 
or  left,  depending  on  the  part  or  the  location  of  the  note 
on  the  staff.  One  stem  may  have  two  or  more  notes. 
When  a  note  has  two  stems  it  indicates  that  it  belongs 
to  two  parts.  When  several  notes  are  to  be  sung  to  one 

syllable  the  slur  *s  used.  When  the  notes  are 

eighths  or  smaller,  the  slurs  are  absorbed  in  the  flags 


4  4  4  4-  In  instrumental  music  the  flags  are 
changed  to  bars  either  within  the  beat  or  in  two  beats, 

J/;  j  j  j  j  to  make  the  time  relations 

easy  to  comprehend.  Sometimes  the  slur  is  used  to 
indicate  the  combination  of  notes  into  phrases. 

The  slur  becomes  a  tie  when  it  binds  together  two 
notes  in  the  same  degree. 

When  the  progress  of  the  rhythm  is  suddenly  to  be 
suspended,  the  pause,  or  hold,  *  is  used. 

The  absolute  time  value  of  a  note  is  not  dependent 

on  its  form.  does  no t  necessarily  have  twice 


the  speed  of  J  J  J  J .  Indeed  in  different  compo- 


MUSICAL  NOTATION 


89 


sitions  they  may  have  the  same  speed.  Eighth  notes 
in  piano  music  are  usually  fast;  in  sacred  music,  they 
may  be  quite  slow.  That  is  to  say,  the  time  element  in 
printed  notes  expresses  relative  periods  of  time,  not 
speed  at  all. 

(b)  Division  into  Measures.  In  order  to  facilitate 
perfect  time  coordination  and  to  bring  out  the  rhythm 
by  placing  the  accent  on  the  proper  notes,  written 
music  is  divided  into  measures.  These  subdivisions  are 
indicated  by  bars  across  the  staff.  Measures  may  be 
of  different  lengths.  The  simple  measures  contain  two 
half  notes  (2/2),  two  quarter  notes  (2/4),  two  eighth 
notes  (2/8),  or  three  half  notes  (3/2),  three  quarter 
notes  (3/4),  three  eighth  notes  (3/8),  or  four  half  notes 
(4/2),  four  quarter  notes  (4/4),  four  eighth  notes  (4/8), 
representing  duple,  triple,  or  quadruple  time  (which 
latter  is  essentially  duple  time). 

The  compound  duple  measure  has  six  fourth  notes 
(6/4),  or  six  eighth  notes  (6/8),  with  three  notes  to  each 
beat. 

The  compound  triple  measure  has  nine  quarter  notes 
(9/4),  or  nine  eighths  (9/8),  with  three  notes  to  each  beat. 

The  compound  quadruple  time  contains  twelve 
quarter  notes  (12/4),  or  twelve  eighth  notes  (12/8),  each 
with  three  notes  to  a  beat. 

The  character  of  the  measure  does  not  entirely  depend 
on  the  total  length  of  its  notes.  Three-four  and  six- 
eight  measures,  for  instance,  have  the  same  time  con¬ 
tent,  but  have  different  accents. 


The  measure  is  useful  also  in  making  clear  where  the 
accents  are  to  fall.  The  first  note  in  all  measures  is 


90  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


strongly  accented;  in  4/4  measure  the  first  note  on  the 
third  beat  has  a  less  emphatic  accent.  In  a  3  / \  measure 
the  first  note  on  the  third  beat  has  a  very  slight  one. 
In  compound  time  there  are  two  sets  of  accents :  the  one 
just  explained  and  the  accents  on  the  first  notes  of  the 
triple  units  making  up  the  measure. 


fJ  > 


The  upper  figure  of  the  time  signature  expresses  the 
number  of  beats  or  pulses  in  the  measure;  the  lower 
figure  indicates  the  standard  note  of  the  measure. 

The  usual  method  of  beating  simple  time  is  as  follows : 
2/4  down,  up;  3/4  down,  right,  up;  4/4  down,  left, 
right,  up;  the  down  beat  having  the  strongest  accent. 

In  compound  time  three  notes  are  counted  to  a  beat, 
and  the  beating  is  the  same  as  in  simple  time. 

In  syncopation  the  accent  is  shifted  from  its  normal 


The  sign  >  shows  to  what  note  the  accent  is  transferred. 
This  is  not  a  vulgar  modern  device,  but  has  been  used 
by  the  best  composers. 

There  is  no  fixed  relation  between  the  notes  and  the 
beats  of  a  measure.  A  note  may  correspond  to  only  a 
fourth  or  an  eighth  of  a  beat,  or  to  all  the  beats  in  the 
measure. 

When  the  first  measure  of  a  composition  is  an  incom¬ 
plete  one,  the  last  measure  contains  only  the  missing 
part;  e.g.y  if  the  first  measure  has  only  one  beat  of  a 
3/4  measure,  the  last  measure  will  have  the  lacking 
two  beats. 


MUSICAL  NOTATION 


91 


3.  The  Notation  of  Expression 

The  effect  of  the  speed  and  of  the  force  of  music  on 
the  nerves  is  very  noticeable.  A  large  part  of  the  value 
of  music,  therefore,  depends  on  the  variations  of  these, 
which  we  call  “  expression.” 

(a)  The  Notation  of  Speed.  The  time  indications 
connected  with  the  notes,  we  have  found,  are  merely 
relative ;  so  we  must  find  some  other  method  of  indicating 
actual  speed.  This  we  do  by  prefacing  a  composition 
by  Italian  or  other  words  suggesting  various  speeds 
more  or  less  accurately. 

Very  slow:  Grave,  Larghissimo,  Largo,  Larghetto. 

Slow:  Adagio,  Lento,  Andante. 

Medium:  Andantino,  Moderato,  Allegretto. 

Fast:  Allegro,  Celere,  Veloce. 

Very  fast:  Vivace,  Presto,  Prestissimo. 

We  use  Italian  words  because  that  language  has  more 
words  expressive  of  differing  speeds;  because  these 
words  have  been  used  internationally  and  have  acquired 
secondary  suggestions  of  quality  and  manner  it  would 
take  many  English  words  to  express. 

But  these  terms  are  more  or  less  vague  and  indetermi¬ 
nate.  If  the  absolute  speed  is  to  be  expressed  we  turn 
to  the  metronome,  a  device  like  an  inverted  clock,  whose 
pendulum  can  be  lengthened  or  shortened  to  a  definite 
scale.  The  basis  of  this  scale  is  the  number  of  beats 
desired  to  the  minute,  each  oscillation,  i.e .,  each  separate 
movement,  accompanied  by  a  click  represents  a  beat. 

J  =  48  means  that  there  are  48  oscillations  (resp. 

beats)  to  the  minute,  representing  half  notes.  J  =100 
means  that  there  are  100  beats  to  the  minute.  This 
is  a  very  useful  instrument,  but  its  use  can  be  overdone. 


92  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


Music  would  be  quite  monotonous  if  the  speed,  once 
determined,  should  be  continued  mechanically.  We 
find  certain  measures  that  call  for  greater  speed  to 
express  growing  feeling  and  we  mark  them  accelerando 
or  accel.  Other  measures  have  a  shade  of  tenderness  or 
calmness,  and  we  mark  them  ritardando ,  or  rit.,  to  show 
that  the  speed  slows  down  gradually,  or  ritenutoy  or 
riten.y  if  a  slower  speed  is  to  be  taken  suddenly.  When 
the  occasion  for  these  deviations  from  the  established 
speed  passes  away,  we  mark  the  fact  by  a  tempo. 

There  is  ad  libitum  or  ad  lib.  which  indicates  absolute 
freedom  in  the  tempo.  Rallentando  signifies  both 
slacking  up  of  speed  and  diminution  of  force  in  a  gradual 
way.  rail  =  rit  +  dim  is  the  proper  equation. 

(b)  The  Notation  of  Manner  and  Quality.  The  manner 
of  rendition  and  the  quality  of  the  tone  calls  for  directions 
which  again  are  expressed  by  accepted  Italian  phrases. 
Here  are  a  few  of  them,  but  a  phrase  book  of  musical 
directions  will  give  many  more. 

Afietuoso,  tenderly.  Espressivo ,  with  expression. 

A  capella ,  without  instru-  Largamente ,  in  a  large,  ex- 

ment.  pansive  manner. 

Con  anima,  with  animation.  Lagrimoso ,  mournfully. 

Con  espressione ,  with  ex-  Maestoso ,  with  majesty. 

pression  Religioso,  religiously. 

Con  spirito,  with  spirit.  Vigor oso,  with  vigour. 

Dolce ,  sweetly. 

The  phrases  for  quality  of  tone  are: 

Sombre  timbre ,  a  muffled,  hollow  quality  of  voice,  ex¬ 
pressing  gravity,  solemnity,  fear,  horror,  etc. 

Clear  timbre ,  a  bright,  open  quality  of  voice,  expressing 
joyfulness,  liveliness,  tranquillity,  etc. 

(c)  The  Notation  of  Force.  The  indication  of  varying 
force  from  soft  to  loud  is  given  by  the  following  terms: 


MUSICAL  NOTATION 


93 


Piano ,  p,  soft  Mezzo  piano ,  mp,  medium 

Pianissimo ,  pp,  very  soft.  soft. 

Pia-pianissimo,  ppp,  ex-  Mezzo ,  m,  medium. 

tremely  soft.  Mezzo  forte,  mf,  medium 

loud. 

Forte,  f,  loud.  Fortissimo,  ff,  very  loud. 
Forte-fortissimo,  fff,  extremely  loud. 


To  express  increasing  force  we  use,  in  addition  to 
symbols, 

Crescendo,  cres.,  gradually  increasing. 

Rinforzando,  rf.  or  rfz.,  increasing  rapidly. 

To  express  decreasing  force  we  use 

Diminuendo ,  dim.,  gradually  decreasing. 

Decrescendo,  decres.,  gradually  decreasing. 

Other  forms  of  varying  force  are  expressed  as  follows: 

Sforzando,  sf.  or  sfz.,  explosively. 

Con  forza,  with  force. 

Sotto  voce,  in  an  undertone. 

Swelling  of  tone  is  expressed  in  the  sign  — =  =- 
(d)  The  Notation  of  Form.  In  order  to  bring  out  the 
form  relations  we  have  severa  devices.  Double  bars 

:: - :  are  used  to  indicate  the  beginning  and  end  of 

passages,  periods  or  movements.  In  many  hymnals 
they  are  used  to  mark  the  end  of  lines  of  the  hymn. 

Dots  in  all  spaces,  or  only  in  the  second  and  third 
spaces,  after  and  before  double  bars  call  for  repetition 


of  the  movement  or  period  between  them. 


The 


dots  after  the  first  double  bar  in  this  repeat  may  be 
omitted.  In  such  a  case  the  repetition  begins  with  the 
first  previous  double  bar. 

Da  Capo,  D.C.,  indicates  a  return  to  the  beginning  of 
the  composition,  the  repeat  ending  usually  with  the 
word  Fine  or  end.  Sometimes  it  means  a  repetition  of 
the  whole  composition. 


94  THE  PHILOSOPHY  OF  MUSICAL  SOUNDS 


Dal  Segno ,  D.S.,  calls  for  a  return  to  the  sign  S* . 

The  Brace  is  a  line  at  the  beginning  connecting  the 
staffs  on  which  the  several  parts  of  a  composition  are 
noted.  In  simple  music  having  only  four  parts,  it 
connects  only  two  staffs,  two  parts  being  written  on 
each  staff.  In  case  an  instrumental  accompaniment 
is  provided,  there  are  four  staffs,  two  for  the  voices,  two 
for  the  instruments.  If  the  vocal  parts  are  somewhat 
elaborate,  they  each  have  an  individual  staff,  and  the 
brace  connects  four  vocal  and  two  instrumental  staffs. 
Some  publications  add  a  curved  brace  for  the  instru¬ 
mental  staffs  to  catch  the  eye  of  the  player. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  State  the  results  of  a  lack  of  an  adequate  musical  notation. 

2.  How  are  individual  tones  represented? 

3.  How  is  exact  pitch  expressed?  What  is  a  clef? 

4.  What  three  clefs  are  used  and  what  is  the  effect  of  each? 

5.  What  is  the  effect  of  a  sharp?  of  a  flat? 

6.  What  is  a  signature  and  what  is  its  purpose? 

7.  What  are  accidentals?  Give  the  rule  of  their  use. 

8.  What  is  the  value  of  a  natural? 

9.  How  is  absolute  pitch  represented? 

10.  What  method  is  used  to  indicate  relative  pitch? 

11.  What  makes  the  notation  of  time  important? 

12.  How  are  the  time  value  of  notes  made  plain? 

13.  How  is  silence  represented? 

14.  What  is  the  meaning  of  a  dot  after  a  note  or  rest? 

15.  What  is  a  slur? 

16.  What  other  use  has  the  slur? 

17.  What  and  why  are  measures?  How  delimited? 

18.  Explain  the  different  lengths  of  measures. 

19.  What  compound  measures  are  there? 

20.  What  further  use  have  measures?  On  what  notes  in  the 
several  measures  do  the  accents  fall? 

21.  What  do  the  figures  in  the  time  signature  mean? 

22.  What  is  syncopated  time? 

23.  How  are  speed  and  force  expressed? 


MUSICAL  NOTATION  95 

24.  What  is  a  metronome  and  what  does  it  indicate? 

25.  How  are  variations  of  speed  and  force  represented? 

26.  How  are  rendition  and  quality  of  tone  expressed? 

27.  What  are  the  principal  terms  to  express  degree  of  force? 

28.  What  are  double  bars  used  for? 

29.  How  is  the  repetition  of  a  passage  indicated? 

30.  What  other  signs  are  used  to  indicate  form? 


II 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


VII 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  CHARACTER  OF 

MUSIC 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  It  may  be  effective  to  urge  the  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  class  to  analyze  their  personal  reactions  to  various 
kinds  of  music  and  so  verify  by  personal  experience  the  proposi¬ 
tions  of  this  chapter.  It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  only  a 
minority  of  the  students  will  have  the  nervous  susceptibility  to 
bring  these  reactions  up  into  consciousness  or  near  enough  to  the 
surface  of  the  subconsciousness  to  make  analysis  possible. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Helmholtz,  “  The  Sensation  of  Sound,” 
Longmans,  London ;  Carl  Emil  Seashore,  “  The  Psychology  of 
Musical  Talent,”  Silver,  Burdett  &  Co.,  Boston;  Edmund  Gurney, 
“The  Power  of  Sound,”  Smith,  Elder  &  Co.,  London;  Wallas- 
chek,  “  Primitive  Music,”  Longmans,  London-.  What  little 
literature  there  is  on  this  whole  subject  is  rather  inaccessible. 

Before  proceeding  to  the  more  detailed  practical  dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  subject,  it  is  proper  that  the  character, 
method  of  operation,  and  purpose  of  sacred  music  should 
be  made  clear.  A  wrong  conception  here  will  seriously 
limit  and  cripple  the  musical  effort  of  the  church,  or  even 
destroy  all  its  practical  efficiency. 

i.  Trie  Problem  Very  Obscure 

There  are  few  psychological  problems  more  obscure  or 
perplexing  than  the  mental  character  of  music.  Students 
of  the  human  mind  have  either  found  the  subject  too 
trivial,  or  too  dependent  on  musical  as  well  as  psycho¬ 
logical  training  for  their  study  and  analysis.1 

1  Speaking  of  the  psychology  of  music,  William  Pole  remarks 
that,  “  It  is  only  lately  that  serious  attention  has  been  given  to 
this  subject  by  competent  writers.  It  is  true  that  the  enormous 
power  of  music  over  the  feeling  and  emotions  of  mankind  has 
been  long  known,  and  has  frequently  formed  the  subject  of 

99 


100 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


Only  here  and  there,  in  the  psychology  of  art  in  gen¬ 
eral,  are  hints  to  be  found.  Herbert  Spencer,  who  wrote 
on  the  origin  of  music  at  some  length,  only  went  so  far 
on  the  psychological  side  as  to  say  that  there  is  “  a  con¬ 
trast  between  the  music  of  coarse  exhilaration  and  the 
music  of  refined  exhilaration,”  not  noticing  that  music  is 
not  always  exhilarating.  Helmholtz,  in  his  “  The  Sensa¬ 
tion  of  Sound  ”  has  studied  simply  the  perception  of 
sound  in  variation.  Herbart,  the  great  German  philos¬ 
opher,  gave  the  subject  some  consideration,  but  reached 
a  very  superficial  conclusion. 

The  mind  recognizes  differences  of  pitch,  of  duration, 
and  of  force  and  accent  in  the  tones  that  are  heard. 
But  this  mental  apprehension  touches  only  the  super¬ 
ficial  facts  and  does  not  reach  the  inner  relation  between 
tones  in  which  lies  the  musical  idea  itself.  We  hear  a 


sound 


and  immediately  after  another  sound 


The  sounds  differ  in  pitch  and  dura¬ 


tion.  There  may  even  be  a  recognition  of  relation  be¬ 
tween  the  pitch  of  the  two  tones.  But  the  sounding  of 
these  tones  separately  makes  no  musical  impression  upon 
us.  But  when  we  sing  or  play  them  one  immediately 
after  the  other,  it  makes  a  musical  phrase  with  a  new 
effect,  depending  on  the  order  of  the  tones. 


■ 

r^r 

Za. 

. 

■4- 

• a 

• a 

 ^  3 

:e 

L-  1  \ 

3S 

ia  _TL 

- -  — 1 

-  - - 1 - 

— t— 

tj  0-  a-  -o 


poetical  allusions;  but  the  more  prosaic  attempts  to  describe  or 
explain  it,  often  by  persons  ignorant  either  of  music,  or  of 
psychology,  or  both,  have  usually  amounted  to  little  more  than 
high  flown  sentiment  or  unmeaning  twaddle.” — “  The  Philosophy 
of  Music,”  p.  15. 


PKOBLEM  OF  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MUSIC  101 


is  stimulating,  inspiring,  stirring.  Inverting  the  order  of 
the  notes,  and  changing  their  length  correspondingly,  we 
find  that 


is  calming  and  gives  a  sense  of  finality.  There  is  abso¬ 
lutely  nothing  in  the  mere  mental  facts  that  should  pro¬ 
duce  this  impression.  A  very  simple  illustration  has  been 
chosen  which  could  be  varied  and  elaborated  still  more. 
We  should  say  of  it,  here  is  a  musical  idea.  But  in  what 
does  the  idea  consist? 


2.  Illustrations  of  Lack  of  Correspondence  Be¬ 
tween  Statement  and  Musical  Effect 


Here  is  a  phrase  from  a  famous  solo  in  “  The  Messiah.” 
Can  you  impress  any  one  with  its  musical  value  by  merely 
telling  him  the  number  of  vibrations  of  each  of  these 
eleven  tones?  There  does  not  seem  to  be  any  percep¬ 
tible  relation  between  the  mental  observation  and  the 
actual  effect  upon  the  mind.  May  we  not  assume  that 
there  is  none  and  that  the  effect  is  produced  in  some 
other  way  ? 

Many  years  ago  the  writer  participated  in  the  learning 
and  rendition  of  Wagner’s  “  Pilgrim  Chorus  ”  from 
“  Tannhauser.”  The  men  had  practiced  it  somewhat 
with  the  piano  in  previous  rehearsals  with  no  particular 
enthusiasm  or  interest.  At  the  final  rehearsal  the 
orchestra  came  in  to  assure  perfect  cooperation  at  the 
concert.  The  hall  in  which  the  choral  society  held  its 
practices  was  somewhat  small  with  a  low  ceiling.  As 
the  combined  men’s  chorus  and  orchestra  fairly  crowded 


102 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


the  room  with  vibrations,  it  was  exceedingly  interesting 
to  see  the  effect  upon  all  concerned.  The  conductor, 
usually  remarkable  for  his  poise  and  self-control,  became 
almost  frenzied  with  physical  excitement;  many  of  the 
singers,  strong,  stalwart  men,  showed  by  their  flushed 
faces,  excited  gesticulations,  rolling  eyes,  and  vibrant 
singing,  how  far  the  music  was  sweeping  them  out  be¬ 
yond  the  bounds  of  their  usual  reserve.  Just  a  touch 
more  and  we  should  have  had  some  of  the  physical  re¬ 
sults  of  the  old-time  revival  meetings.  The  same  chorus 
and  orchestra  rendered  the  same  music  in  a  large  hall 
where  the  sound  was  not  confined,  with  no  excitement 
whatever.  The  sensory  and  intellectual  elements  in  the 
renderings  were  absolutely  the  same;  whence  the  dif¬ 
ference  in  effect? 

From  boyhood  up  the  writer  has  always  heard  the 
overture  to  “  Tannhauser  ”  with  great  delight.  Yet 
when  a  short  while  before  his  death  Anton  Seidl  gave 
it  in  our  city  with  his  orchestra,  he  added  horns  at  a 
certain  climacteric  point  and  touched  a  consummate  note 
that  so  nearly  swept  the  writer  off  his  feet  that  he  barely 
escaped  rising  and  shouting.  Here  again  the  effect  was 
not  intellectual,  but  physical  and  then  psychical.3 

In  the  day  that  Saul  joined  the  ranks  of  the  prophets, 
it  was  the  music  of  a  company  of  prophets  from  the 
school  of  Bethel  that  transported  him.  It  was  not  until 
a  minstrel  played  to  Elisha  that  prophetic  vision  came  to 
him  when  the  Kings  of  Judah  and  Israel  asked  the  out- 

2  “  The  sound  of  the  tam  tam,  or  native  drum  of  the  medicine 
men  in  Ashuka,  West  Africa,  made  many  young  people  ill  and 
they  were  so  excited  that  they  acted  like  animals  running  about 
on  all  fours  and  raved.  The  louder  it  is  beaten,  the  wilder  the 
jumpings  of  the  males  and  the  more  disgustingly  indecent  the  con¬ 
tortions  of  the  women.” — Wallaschek,  “  Primitive  Music,”  p.  106. 


PROBLEM  OF  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MUSIC  103 


come  of  the  proposed  war  with  the  King  of  Moab. 
Here  the  preparation  was  a  physical  one,  not  an  intellec¬ 
tual,  much  less  a  religious  one.3 

3.  Physical  Basis  of  Effect  of  Music 

The  waves  of  sound  are  physical  vibrations  in  which, 
according  to  their  relative  conductivity,  all  the  particles 
of  the  body  participate.  Is  it  likely  that  the  matter  of 
the  extremely  sensitive  nervous  system  should  not  be 
affected  by  these  vibrations?  Edmund  Gurney  remarks 
on  this  point,  “  Of  all  formless  impressions,  sounds  can 
give  by  far  the  strongest  shock  to  the  organism.”  He 
adds,  “  The  eye  is  always  seeing  lights  and  colours  and 
rests  contentedly  on  agreeable  masses ;  while  the  ear  is 
peculiarly  affected  and  excited  by  the  occasional  phenom¬ 
ena  which  present  distinct  sound  colour.”  4 

The  traditional  blind  man  characterized  scarlet  as  being 
like  the  sound  of  a  trumpet ;  but  he  would  have  found 
the  colour  much  less  stirring  than  the  sound.  The  dif¬ 
ference  clearly  lies  in  the  distinctly  physical  character  of 
sound. 

4.  The  Musical  Effect  Not  Limited  to  the 

Auditory  Nerve 

In  his  phrase  “  The  ear  is  peculiarly  affected  ”  Mr. 

8 “Now  we  may  well  admit  that  music  could  be  capable  of 
inducing  such  effects  as  these  (prophetic  frenzy),  and  if  we  ask 
the  cause,  it  would  appear  that  to  finely  strung  temperaments, 
music  acts  as  a  nervous  stimulant,  producing  parallel  effects  to 
those  of  any  other  stimulant,  first  soothing,  and,  if  continued, 
intoxicating;  and  then  finally  comes  the  reaction,  in  which  the 
mind  recovers  its  balance,  and  in  its  sublime  and  tranquil  exulta¬ 
tion  the  eyes  see  visions,  the  ears  hear  voices,  and  the  tongue 
utters  words  that  beggar  the  powers  of  deliberate  expression.” — 
Rowbotham,  “  The  History  of  Music.” 

4  Edmund  Gurney,  “  The  Power  of  Sound.” 


104 


THE  PSYCHOLGOY  OF  MUSIC 


Gurney  seems  to  assume  that  the  effect  of  sounds  is 
limited  to  the  auditory  nerve.  That  it  is  the  principal 
sensory  center  affected  no  one  will  doubt,  but  recent 
investigation  makes  it  clear  that  the  whole  sensory  nervous 
system  is  responsive  to  sounds.  Helen  Keller,  as  is  well 
known,  is  stone  deaf.  Yet  she  is  conscious  of  certain 
nervous  effects  when  music  is  played  in  her  presence. 
She  can  recognize  pieces  of  music  previously  played; 
she  even  recognized  a  melody  sung  by  her  father  before 
scarlet  fever  closed  upon  her  the  principal  windows 
through  which  the  soul  apprehends  the  outer  world  and 
holds  converse  with  it.  It  was  said  of  Laura  Bridgman, 
the  Helen  Keller  of  a  previous  generation,  that  she  per¬ 
ceived  the  rhythm,  loudness  and  succession  of  tones.  It 
was  then  thought  through  the  vibrations  of  the  soil : 
why  not  of  the  surrounding  atmosphere? 

At  one  of  the  State  Deaf  and  Dumb  Asylums  a  boy 
was  noticed  by  one  of  his  teachers  pounding  a  stone  wall 
with  a  board.  Asked  why  he  did  it,  he  replied  that  it 
thrilled  him  and  gave  him  pleasure.  This  led  to  the  in¬ 
troduction  of  drums  which  greatly  facilitated  the  march¬ 
ing  of  the  students  and  later  to  the  organization  of  a 
brass  band  which  gave  concerts  that  delighted  the  deaf- 
mutes  as  keenly  as  if  they  could  actually  hear.  The 
psychological  effects  were  very  good, — “  made  the  chil¬ 
dren  alert  and  developed  greater  initiative/’ 

It  hardly  needs  to  be  said  that  these  impressions  have 
by  no  means  the  definiteness  of  those  made  upon  the 
hearing  ear.  There  is  a  sense  of  rhythm,  of  regularly 
recurring  accents,  particularly  in  music  of  a  pronouncedly 
rhythmical  style,  and  also  a  sense  of  varying  nervous 
tension  due  to  changes  of  pitch.  It  may  also  be  taken 
for  granted  that  persons  of  normal  hearing  are  equally 
affected  through  their  sensoiy  nervous  systems,  though, 


PROBLEM  OF  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MUSIC  105 


because  that  effect  is  submerged  beneath  the  infinitely 
clearer  and  more  powerful  impressions  made  upon  the 
auditory  nerve,  they  are  not  conscious  of  it. 

5.  The  Effect  of  Music  Not  Limited  to  Sensory 

Nerves 

The  effects  of  music  on  the  nervous  system  are  not 
confined  to  the  sensory  nerves.  The  vibrations  affect 
the  sympathetic  and  motor  systems  directly,  not  by  way 
of  the  audition.  Breathing,  circulation,  general  stimula¬ 
tion  or  depression,  are  not  affected  by  hearing  or  other 
sense  perception,  but  immediately  by  the  vibration  of  the 
nervous  tissue  itself.  In  other  words,  these  effects  of 
music  are  purely  physical,  not  mental. 

6.  Difference  in  Musical  Effect  Depends  on 
Physical  Constitution 

That  the  effect  of  music  is  physical  is  to  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  difference  of  susceptibility  to  it  de¬ 
pends  on  type  of  physical  constitution, — on  the  tempera¬ 
ment,  as  we  say.  Phlegmatic,  coarse-grained  persons  are 
rarely  musical ;  when  they  are,  there  is,  presumably,  a 
susceptible  nervous  system  overlaid  by  the  coarse,  fleshy 
tissue.5 

Some  persons  are  inversely  susceptible.  Dr.  Johnson 
said  that  music  was  the  least  disagreeable  of  noises. 
Andrew  Lang,  the  versatile  author,  admits  that  he  dis- 

6  “  A  man  of  strong  vitality,  forceful  personality,  possessing 
plenty  of  energy,  will  enjoy  music  of  equivalent  qualities,  that  is, 
lively  music  of  strong  rhythmic  character.  For  rhythm  is  accent, 
accent  is  will,  will  is  expression  of  personal  strength,  or  work, 
which  is  the  expression  of  joy  in  living.  If  such  a  man  lacks 
imagination,  and  he  usually  does,  he  will  be  fond  of  ragtime 
which  is  nothing  but  rhythm  and  accent.” — Hans  Schneider  in 
The  Musical  Quarterly,  April,  1921. 


106 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


likes  music  extremely.  He  likes  a  song  if  the  words 
are  good  and  audible  and  is  touched  much  as  a  dog  is 
when  he  howls  as  he  hears  the  sound  of  a  piano.  General 
Grant  detested  music  in  any  and  every  form.  To  sit  out 
an  opera  was  an  agony  to  him.  Napoleon  Bonaparte 
complained  that  music  troubled  his  nerves.  These  are 
purely  physical  idiosyncrasies,  not  mental  shortcomings. 

7.  Lack  of  Correspondence  Between  Musical  Sus¬ 
ceptibility  and  Mental  Power 

(a)  Musical  and,  Intellectual  Powers  Do  Not  Corre¬ 
spond.  Musical  gifts  and  intellectual  talents  are  often  in 
inverse  proportion  in  musical  persons.  Blind  Tom  was 
a  musical  prodigy,  but  an  imbecile,  a  filthy,  gluttonous, 
black  animal.  Pie  could  reproduce  at  once  simple  music 
played  in  his  hearing.  He  could  learn  the  most  difficult 
compositions  of  Beethoven,  Mendelssohn  and  Liszt  by 
continued  coaching.  He  could  turn  his  back  to  the  piano 
and  exchange  the  parts  of  the  two  hands.  He  was  able 
to  play  “  Yankee  Doodle  ”  with  one  hand  and  “  The 
Fisher’s  Hornpipe  ”  with  the  other  and  sing  Root’s 
“  Tramp,  Tramp,  Tramp,  the  Boys  are  Marching,”  all  at 
the  same  time.  Yet  he  was  an  idiot ! 

( b )  Children  and  Animals  Susceptible  to  Music.  Chil¬ 
dren,  infants  even,  are  usually  very  susceptible.9  They 

*  With  a  mother’s  fond  vanity  the  writer’s  wife  once  told  a 
noted  composer  visiting  in  their  home  of  the  musical  responsive¬ 
ness  of  their  latest  baby;  how  he  would  lie  supremely  happy 
when  the  music  was  soft  and  sweet;  how  he  would  begin  to  wave 
his  hands  more  and  more  vigorously  as  the  music  became  more 
stirring;  how  when  it  became  loud  and  crashing  he  would  kick 
with  his  feet  and  wave  his  hands,  squirming  and  crowing  in  a 
very  abandon  of  delight.  Naively  and  blissfully  oblivious  to  the 
rather  malapropos  character  of  his  reply,  the  visitor  remarked, 
“I  have  noticed  that  my  cats  are  affected  in  the  same  way!” 
Whatever  his  social  tact,  his  philosophy  certainly  was  correct. 


PEOBLEM  OF  THE  CHAEACTEE  OF  MUSIC  107 


not  only  love  to  make  noise,  but  are  attracted  by  actual 
music  of  a  rhythmical  kind.  Many  animals  are  suscep¬ 
tible  to  the  sound  of  music.  In  infants  and  animals  the 
lack  of  intellectual  elements  in  the  effect  of  music  cannot 
be  doubted. 

(c)  Public  Consensus  Regarding  Musicians.  From 
what  has  been  said  it  seems  to  be  clear  that  the  effect  of 
music  is  not  directly  intellectual  in  character.  Its 
science  is  intellectual,  of  course,  and  the  laws  that  govern 
its  composition, — harmony,  counterpoint,  fugue,  orches¬ 
tration  and  the  like, — call  for  no  mean  intellectual  power. 
But  the  action  of  the  music  itself  is  not  intellectual.  As 
we  have  seen,  the  most  intellectual  minds  are  often  Un¬ 
musical.  The  general  public  consensus  caricatures 
musicians  as  long-haired  freaks.  Goethe  had  no  interest 
in  his  contemporary,  Beethoven,  and  even  less,  if  possible, 
in  Schubert,  who  at  that  very  time  was  conferring  im¬ 
mortality  upon  some  of  Goethe’s  lyrics,  such  as  “  Der 
Erlkonig  ”  and  “  Gretchen  am  Spinnrade/’ 

8.  The  Apparent  Emotionality  of  Music 

Despite  the  lack  of  intellectual  content  in  music,  all 
literature  is  full  of  references  to  its  emotionality.  But 
how  can  there  be  genuine  emotion  without  a  previous 
idea  of  some  kind  to  rouse  it?  If  you  meet  a  person  on 
the  street  laughing,  he  will  immediately  take  pleasure  in 
telling  you  the  idea  that  caused  his  laugh  and  you  will 
laugh  with  him.  If  he  cannot,  you  may  be  sure  he  is 
suffering  from  hysteria,  a  nervous  disease.  If  you  turn 
to  your  neighbour  at  the  concert  while  Schumann’s 
“  Traumerei  ”  is  being  played  by  the  orchestra,  or  on  the 
piano,  and  ask  her  why  she  looks  so  dreamy,  she  will 
reply,  “  Oh,  it’s  the  music !  ”  She  has  no  intellectual 
basis  for  her  state  of  mind. 


108 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


Emotions  must  have  some  definite  fact,  some  definite 
desire  or  instinct,  some  definite  mental  action,  as  a  basis, 
and  that  basis  must  have  an  emotional  appeal.  Now  the 
intellectual  material  offered  by  music  has  no  emotional 
appeal  whatsoever.  That  the  dominant  seventh  resolves 
into  its  tonic  is  not  a  fact  that  awakens  feelings.  You 
can  stir  no  one  with  the  rule  that  a  sharp  raises  the  pitch 
a  half  step  and  a  flat  lowers  it  the  same  interval. 

We  are  therefore  constrained  to  conclude  that  there 
is  no  inherent  emotionality  in  the  effect  of  music. 

9.  Apparently  Emotional  Effect  of  Music  Differs 

With  Different  People 

That  the  effect  of  music  is  only  apparently  emotional 
is  further  indicated  by  the  fact  that  when  you  ask  for 
some  intellectual  equivalent  of  the  apparently  emotional 
impression  made  by  music,  no  two  persons  are  likely  to 
give  you  the  same  reply.  If  a  musical  composition  is 
played,  the  impressions  made  will  be  as  various  as  the 
individuals  composing  the  audience.  Helmholtz  expresses 
this  confusion  well :  “  When  different  hearers  endeavour 
to  describe  the  impression  of  instrumental  music,  they 
often  adduce  entirely  different  situations  or  feelings 
which  they  suppose  to  have  been  symbolized  by  the 

•  )>  7 

music. 

Now,  any  emotional  fact,  incident,  or  experience  pro¬ 
duces  exactly  the  same  emotion  (differing  though  it  may 
be  in  intensity)  in  every  person.  What  a  startling  thing 
it  would  be  if  the  comedian’s  joke  should  set  some  of 
his  hearers  laughing,  some  of  them  weeping,  some  of 

7  Gurney  also  recognized  this  difficulty:  “Music  is  perpetually 
felt  as  strongly  emotional,  while  defying  all  attempts  to  analyze 
the  experience,  or  to  define  it  even  in  the  most  general  way  in 
terms  of  definite  emotion.” 


PEOBLEM  OF  THE  CHAEACTEE  OF  MUSIC  109 


them  into  melancholy  meditation !  But  it  is  an  inherent, 
essential  characteristic  of  music  that  the  same  composi¬ 
tion  will  produce  apparently  emotional  effects  as  diverse 
as  the  persons  hearing  it.  Offenbach’s  “  Barcarolle  ” 
will  bring  to  one  man  happy  pictures  of  his  far-away 
family  and  awake  longings  to  return;  to  another  mem¬ 
ories  of  a  happy  day  in  sunny  Capri ;  to  another  tender 
memories  of  a  loving  mother  who  had  long  since  faded 
out  of  his  life ;  to  a  mother  will  come  a  picture  of  her 
baby  lying  in  innocent  sleep  in  his  crib.  There  is  only 
the  vaguest  unity  of  feeling  in  this  phantasmagoria  of 
mental  and  emotional  effects  called  up  by  Offenbach’s 
music.  This  is  absolutely  out  of  harmony  with  all  our 
other  emotional  experiences. 

io.  Music  Often  Merely  Stimulating 

Furthermore,  the  effect  of  music  on  some  people  is  not 
even  apparently  emotional.  It  is  simply  stimulating. 
In  some  it  sets  the  imagination  at  work,  summoning  up 
a  series  of  unrelated  pictures.  In  others,  there  is  no 
special  feeling,  only  a  crowding  throng  of  memories  as 
diverse  as  human  experience.  Music  stimulates  philo¬ 
sophical  thinkers,  poets,  orators,  preachers, — nay  even 
audiences,  so  that  they  hear  with  more  interest  and  in¬ 
telligence. 

This  stimulus  on  peculiarly  susceptible  natures  is  akin 
to  the  effect  of  such  drugs  as  opium  and  Indian  hemp. 
Berlioz,  the  French  symphonic  composer,  describes  the 
effects  of  music  on  him  in  the  following  terms :  “  While 
hearing  certain  pieces  of  music  my  vital  forces  seem  at 
first  to  be  doubled ;  I  feel  a  delicious  pleasure  in  which 
reason  has  no  part;  the  habit  of  analysis  itself  then  gives 
rise  to  admiration;  the  emotion,  growing  in  the  direct 
ratio  of  the  energy  and  grandeur  of  the  composer’s  ideas, 


110 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


soon  produces  a  strange  agitation  in  the  circulation  of  the 
blood ;  my  arteries  pulsate  violently ;  tears,  which  usually 
announce  the  end  of  the  paroxysm,  often  only  indicate  a 
progressive  stage  which  is  to  become  much  more  intense. 
In  this  case  there  follow  spasmodic  contractions  of  the 
muscles,  trembling  in  all  the  limbs,  a  total  numbness  in 
the  feet  and  hands,  partial  paralysis  of  the  optic  and 
auditory  nerves.” 

Camille  Mauclaire,  the  French  author  of  “  La  Religion 
de  FMusique  ”  gives  a  vivid  description  of  the  close  of 
such  a  musical  debauch.  “  But  the  end  of  a  concert ! 
All  that  I  see  resembles  the  charred  remnants  of  a  daz¬ 
zling  display  of  pyrotechnics,  while  my  eyes  are  still 
dilated  with  its  overpowering  brilliancy.  What  a  revul¬ 
sion  of  feeling  to  fall  again  into  the  every-day  life  with 
its  tedious  conventions  and  formalities !  The  return  to 
life  from  the  ecstasy  of  opium  has  alone  these  indefinable 
terrors,  these  lingering  descents  from  stupefaction  to¬ 
wards  consciousness.”  8 

These  are  the  experiences  of  men  abnormally  sensitive 
to  the  action  of  music.  But  every  normal  nervous  system 
will  give  a  similar  reaction  to  music  in  kind  if  not  in  de¬ 
gree. 

If  the  effect  of  music  is  neither  intellectual  nor  emo- 

8  Note  the  reference  to  the  effect  of  a  drug!  To  emphasize  the 
drugging  effect  of  some  music  let  us  consider  the  following 
excerpts,  from  an  interview  in  a  Madison,  Wisconsin,  paper 
with  Dr.  Frank  Morton,  a  nationally  known  musical  scientist. 

“Jazz — musical  bolshevism — has  the  same  disorganizing  effect 
on  the  nerves  as  moonshine  ‘  licker/  ”  declared  Dr.  Morton,  “  but 
good  music  has  the  power  to  stimulate,  intoxicate  or  soothe  the 
mind.” 

“  The  effect  of  rhythmic  repetition  is  to  drive  its  votaries  to 
extreme  of  valour,  or  depravity,  or  rapture,  that  the  strongest 
liquor  would  not  inspire.” 


PROBLEM  OF  THE  CHARACTER  OF  MUSIC  111 


tional  and  does  secure  a  pronouncedly  physical  reaction 
both  in  nervous  sensations  and  in  the  functioning  of  the 
heart  and  other  organs  of  the  human  body,  was  the  philos¬ 
opher  Herbart  in  his  discussion  of  art  psychology  right 
in  confining  the  effect  of  music  on  the  human  organism 
to  the  physical,  i.  e.,  nervous,  side  ? 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  is  the  psychology  of  music  a  difficult  problem? 

2.  Illustrate  obscure  effects  of  music. 

3.  What  is  the  physical  basis  for  musical  effect  and  how  does 
it  operate? 

4.  Through  what  nerves  do  the  sounds  affect  the  physical 
system  ? 

5.  State  facts  showing  that  auditory  nerve  is  not  the  only 
means  by  which  sound  affects  the  mind. 

6.  Is  the  effect  of  music  intelligible? 

7.  Give  additional  argument  for  the  physical  character  of  the 
effect  of  music. 

8.  Do  musical  susceptibility  and  mental  power  correspond? 

9.  What  are  the  intellectual  elements  in  music? 

10.  Is  the  alleged  emotionality  of  music  real  or  apparent? 

11.  What  is  the  inevitable  basis  of  emotion? 

12.  To  what  extent  can  music  supply  this  basis? 

13.  Is  music  always  emotional  in  character? 

14.  How  did  music  affect  two  prominent  French  musicians 
physically? 

15.  Why  does  not  music  affect  all  persons  equally? 


VIII 

THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSICS  ACTION 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  This  chapter  can  be  made  more  clear 
and  interesting  if  the  musical  illustrations  are  played  on  a  piano 
or  organ.  As  they  are  nearly  all  quite  accessible,  the  playing  need 
not  be  limited  to  the  phrases  here  given,  but  can  include  whole 
passages.  Indeed,  other  illustrative  passages,  not  cited  here,  may 
be  played,  but  care  should  be  taken  that  they  bear  upon  the 
individual  points  under  discussion,  or  confusion  will  result. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Bartholomew,  “  Psychology  of  Mu¬ 
sic”;  Billroth,  “  Wer  ist  musikalisch?  ” ;  McCosh,  “The  Emo¬ 
tions.” 

It  is  not  the  hope  of  giving  a  full  and  complete  solu¬ 
tion  to  the  problem  stated  in  the  foregoing  chapter  that 
prompts  its  further  discussion.  It  is  simply  a  sense  of 
the  necessity  of  supplying  a  working  theory  on  which 
plans  and  methods  in  practical  musical  work  may  be 
based. 

i.  The  Immediate  Effect  of  Music 

The  immediate  and  primary  effect  of  music  is  upon 
the  sensory  nervous  system,  and  secondarily  upon  the 
sympathetic  and  motor  nerves,  the  cerebellum,  the  spinal 
cord  and  the  nervous  ganglia  or  nerve  centers.  This 
action  occurs  through  both  the  auditory  nerve  and  the 
general  sensory  system,  and  directly  through  the  vibra¬ 
tion  of  the  nervous  tissue  of  the  sympathetic  and  motor 
systems. 

Gottschalk,  the  first  great  American  piano  virtuoso, 
recognized  the  truth  of  this  proposition  three  quarters 
of  a  century  ago :  “  Music  is  eminently  sensuous.  Cer¬ 
tain  combinations  move  us,  not  because  they  are  ingen¬ 
ious,  but  because  they  move  our  nervous  system  in  a 
certain  way.”  Bartholomew  in  his  “  Psychology  of 

1 1  2 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC’S  ACTION  113 


Music  ”  in  recognizing  its  truth,  remarks :  “  Looking  at 
the  nervous  system  as  a  whole,  we  see  here  a  mechanism 
admirably  adapted  for  receiving  and  transmitting  im¬ 
pulses  from  without  to  the  soul  and  for  giving  expression 
to  the  conceptions,  emotions,  and  volitions  of  the  soul  in 
the  various  muscular  movements.”  1 

Billroth,  in  his  very  suggestive  little  book,  “  Wer  ist 
musikalisch?  ”  carries  the  idea  a  step  further.  In  the  ex¬ 
treme  stimulus  of  the  sensory  nervous  system  caused  by 
music,  the  nerve  centers  associated  with  other  senses, 
notably  that  of  sight,  are  so  moved  upon  that  they  also 
send  a  report  to  the  brain.  Out  of  this  nervous  fact 
noted  by  this  German  writer  has  grown  the  whole  theory 
of  the  correspondence  of  tone  and  colour.  Persons  suf¬ 
fering  from  hyperaesthesia  of  the  nerves  have  supposed 
themselves  more  gifted  than  their  fellows  in  being  able 
to  see  colours  when  they  hear  tones,  not  realizing  that  it 
is  a  morbid  result  of  disease.  Billroth  says  he  heard  a 
soprano  singing  sharp,  and  when  she  struck  high  “  B  ” 
a  quarter  step  too  high,  he  suddenly  felt  a  decayed  tooth 
throb  with  pain. 

2.  Music  Affects  the  Nervous  Tension  2 

The  effect  of  music  upon  the  nerves  is  either  stimulat¬ 
ing  or  depressing.3 

1  It  is  worth  noting  that  that  original  American  musical 
genius,  William  Billings,  recognized  the  nervous  reaction  to 
music,  for  in  his  “  Encomium  on  Music”  in  “The  New  England 
Psalm  Singer,”  he  refers  to  “  the  many  wonderful  effects  which 
music  has  on  the  animal  spirit  and  upon  the  nervous  system.” 

2  The  phrase  “  nervous  tension  ”  expresses  a  universal  experi¬ 
ence,  allusion  to  which  is  constant  in  both  speech  and  the  written 
word ;  but  its  exact  character  has  not  been  scientifically  deter¬ 
mined  any  more  than  the  method  by  which  the  nerves  transmit 
sensations.  Just  as  we  know  there  is  sensation,  so  we  know  the 
differing  states  of  the  nerves  which  we  call  depression  or  ex¬ 
hilaration.  Science  as  yet  can  go  no  further  than  to  report  in 
tabulated  form  the  reactions  in  heart  action  and  respiration  pro- 


114 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


( a )  The  Effect  of  Major  Music.  Major  music,  unless 
modified  by  slow  rhythm,  or  by  excess  of  heavy  discords, 
is  essentially  stimulating.  Soft,  quiet,  major  music  may 
be  so  slightly  depressing  as  to  calm  and  soothe  the  nerves, 
as  in  the  average  lullaby,  or  in  Schubert’s  “  Meeres 
Stille.” 


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duced  by  the  nervous  changes  we  refer  to  as  “  changes  in 
tension.” 

8  An  English  scientist,  in  investigating  the  effect  of  music  physi¬ 
ologically,  found  that  while  he  could  grip  an  object  harder  when 
strong,  majestic  music  was  played  than  when  no  music  was 
played,  his  grip  was  correspondingly  weaker  than  normal  when  a 
lullaby  was  played.  This  illustrates  the  stimulating  effect  of 
some  music  and  the  depressing  influence  of  a  different  kind. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC’S  ACTION  115 


of  slight  range,  it  may  be  mournfully  depressing,  as  in 
the  “  Dead  March  ”  in  Handel's  oratorio,  “  Saul/’ 


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Major  music  with  marked  and  rapid  rhythm  exhilarates 
and  stimulates,  as  may  be  felt  in  popular  marches.1 * * 4  If 
the  recurring  accents — shocks  to  the  nerves — are  regular 
enough,  the  nervous  stimulus  overflows  into  the  motor 
nervous  system  and  the  inclination  is  felt  to  march,  or 
dance,  or  to  mark  time  in  some  simpler  way. 

( b )  The  Effect  of  Minor  Music.  Minor  music  is  es¬ 
sentially  depressing  to  the  nerves. 

Windham,  L.  M.  Daniel  Read. 


’Twas  on  that  dark, that  doleful  night,  When  pow’rs  of  earth  and  hell  a-rose, 


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But  this  natural  effect  may  be  augumented  or  neutralized 

by  rapidly  and  regularly  recurring  rhythm.  The  accom- 


*  “  Man  with  that  unfailing  instinct  for  his  feeling-states,  un¬ 
erringly  and  accurately  connects  with  them  the  proper  physical 
states.  To  him  fast  music  is  adequate  with  increase  of  action 
and  an  increase  of  joy;  slow  music  is  arrest  of  activity  and 
ultimately,  as  we  shall  see  later,  will  become  the  expression  of 
sorrow.” — Hans  Schneider  in  The  Musical  Quarterly  for  April 
1921. 


116 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


paniment  of  Schubert’s  song,  “  Der  Erlkonig,”  not  only 
imitates  the  galloping  steed,  but  creates  the  proper  nerv¬ 
ous  background  for  the  weird  verse  of  Goethe. 


wild  ? 
Wind? 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC’S  ACTION  117 


The  antagonistic  tendencies  of  rhythm  and  minor  tonality 
give  the  bizarre,  brilliant  effect  such  music  often  has. 

(c)  Effect  of  Music  Modified  by  Rhythm  and  Dis¬ 
cords.  The  action  of  music  on  the  nerves  is  modified 
by  the  elements  of  rhythm  and  discords,  as  already  sug¬ 
gested,  making  it  either  pleasing  or  irritant  (or  exciting) 
in  quality.  An  excess  of  discords  produces  great  nervous 
irritation.  Richard  Strauss  has  built  his  style  upon  the 
exploitation  of  discords.  A  very  cultivated  Hungarian 
gentleman  in  Berlin  explained  to  the  writer  why  he  never 
attended  Strauss’  operas :  “  He  tears  my  nerves  into 
pieces.”  Regularly  recurring  rhythm  is  pleasing  to  the 
natural  nervous  system,  although  to  a  sophisticated  set 
of  nerves  the  more  obvious  and  simpler  rhythms  of  a 
pronounced  character  may  prove  painful,  the  nervous 
shocks  becoming  cumulative  by  anticipation,  and  the 
nerves  more  susceptible  by  refinement.  This  is  the  phi¬ 
losophy  of  the  nausea  of  nervously  sensitive  persons  over 
banal  rhythms  that  please  the  unrefined.  Irregular 
rhythms  full  of  unexpected  shocks  and  harsh  discords 
are  irritant,  adding  intensity  and  poignancy  to  the  effect 
whether  stimulating  or  depressing,5  as  illustrated  by  a 
passage  from  Edward  Elgar’s  oratorio,  “  The  Dream  of 
Gerontius.” 


6  Gilpin,  the  negro  actor,  in  his  African  play,  “  Emperor 
Jones”  has  a  tam  tam  struck  every  second  to  give  an  aural 
background  to  the  jungle  life  portrayed.  The  effect  on  white 
audiences  of  this  simple  device,  ominous  and  depressing,  was 
very  profound,  with  its  regular  shock  on  the  nerves,  like  a  drop 


118 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


(i d )  The  Effect  of  Pitch.  In  addition  to  rhythm  and 
discords,  we  have  the  element  of  pitch.9  The  nervous 
effect  of  varying  pitch  is  felt,  whether  it  is  noted  and 
analyzed  by  the  mind  or  not.  But  the  mental  perception 
of  the  pitches  of  the  several  tones  of  a  melody  is  the 
beginning  of  art  music.  There  can  be  no  musical 
thinking  without  it  and  musical  thinking  must  precede 
musical  creation.  Then  there  is  an  association — whether 
conscious  or  subconscious  matters  not — of  a  nervous  im¬ 
pression  corresponding  to  each  note  and  to  the  rhythm 
of  successive  notes.  The  unintended  movements  of  a 
solo  player  or  singer  illustrate  the  latter. 

The  notes  corresponding  to  the  middle  octave  of  the 
range  of  the  human  voice,  whether  male  or  female,  may 
be  called  normal  or  neutral.  Notes  above  that  range  in¬ 
crease  intensity  and  poignancy  until  the  higher  notes  of 
the  scale  become  fairly  irritant,  as  in  the  opening  of 
Wagner’s  Lohengrin  overture. 


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of  water  every  moment  falling  on  one’s  head.  It  did  more  than 
all  the  scenery  to  put  the  audience  into  the  jungle  mood.  It 
was,  of  course,  only  a  nervous  effect  essentially. 

6  “  I  am  aware  I  put  forward  nothing  new  in  the  assertion, 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP  MUSIC’S  ACTION  119 


Below  the  normal  octave  the  pitch  becomes  increasingly 
depressing,  as  witness  the  following  bassoon  passage  from 
Tchaikovsky’s  “  Pathetic”  Symphony. 


This  increasing  or  decreasing  of  the  vibrations  per  second 
affects  the  nerves  in  like  proportion  to  the  number  of 
shocks. 


(e)  The  Effect  of  Force.  Intensity  of  impression  also 
depends  on  the  amount  of  force  applied.  Medium  force 
is  normal.  Low  force  is  depressing.  Strong  force  is 
exhilarating  in  itself,  but  may  be  greatly  modified  by 
other  factors,  simply  intensifying  them. 

(/)  The  Effect  of  Quality  of  Tone.  The  quality  of 
tone  whether  that  of  a  flute  or  a  string,  somber  or  bril¬ 
liant,  pure  or  metallic,  negative  as  a  simple  tone  or  rich 
in  overtones,  has  a  great  modifying  power.  One  need 
but  listen  to  the  varied  tonal  qualities  of  the  pipe  organ 
stops  and  note  the  nervous  effect  produced  upon  one’s 
own  nerves  to  be  impressed  with  the  importance  of  the 
mere  quality  of  the  tone.  Compare  a  Diapason  with  a 
Gamba,  or  a  stopped  Diapason  with  a  Flute  d’Amour,  or 
a  Vox  Humana  or  Vox  Angelica,  with  an  Oboe  (all  reed 
stops)  and  you  will  get  the  modifying  effect  of  the  quality 
of  tone. 

(g)  The  Effect  of  Music  Infinitely  Varied.  So  many 
elements  cooperate,  in  such  endless  variety  of  individual 

that  we  easily  connect  an  ascending  or  descending  modulation 
with  an  increase  or  decrease  of  feeling.  .  .  Wallaschek, 
“Primitive  Mu^ic.” 


120 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


intensity,  in  music's  attack  upon  the  nerves,  that  its  range 
of  nervous  effect  is  infinitely  varied.  Add  to  this  the 
differences  in  the  nervous  susceptibility  of  the  hearers 
and  you  have  a  sweep  of  different  effects  that  is  practi¬ 
cally  infinite  and  certainly  inexhaustible. 

3.  The  Basis  of  Music's  Mental  Stimulation 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  mental  stimulation  found 
in  the  action  of  music  on  the  nerves.  This  is  primarily 
due  to  its  physical  stimulus.  The  stimulated  or  de¬ 
pressed  nerves  hurry  or  slacken  the  action  of  the  heart 
and  soon  affect  the  circulation  and  the  breathing,  and 
hence  the  whole  physical  system,  as  has  been  amply 
proved  by  tests  made  in  the  laboratory  of  Clark  Univer¬ 
sity,  largely  an  institution  of  research. 

In  some  true  sense  Northern  Europe  is  Protestant  to¬ 
day  because  of  the  stimulating  effect  of  music.  Gustavus 
Adolphus  led  his  soldiers  into  battle  against  the  combined 
armies  of  the  Roman  Catholic  nations  during  the  Thirty 
Years’  War  singing  the  great  chorales  born  of  the  Refor¬ 
mation.  Cromwell’s  “  Ironsides  ”  sang  their  crude  metri¬ 
cal  psalms  with  stentorian  voices  as  they  battled  with  the 
Roman  Catholic  cavaliers  during  and  immediately  after 
the  reign  of  Charles  the  First.  The  victories  of  these 
generals  was  in  no  small  degree  due  to  the  enthusiasm 
and  vigour  so  generated.  With  armies  singing  the  “  Mar¬ 
seillaise  ”  Napoleon  conquered  Europe.  Never  before 
has  the  stimulating  value  of  music  in  war  been  so  clearly 
and  so  formally  recognized  by  military  authorities  as  on 
both  sides  during  the  recent  war.7 

7  One  of  the  greatest  psychological  assets  of  the  Central  Powers 
was  the  song  “  Deutschland  fiber  Alles  ”  with  Haydn’s  noble 
melody.  The  allies  lacked  a  great  inspiring  song  that  should 
unite  their  forces  by  a  common  sentiment. 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC’S  ACTION  121 


4.  Physical  Reactions  Not  the  Whole  of 

Music’s  Effect 

But  when  we  have  marked  the  differences  of  nervous 
tension  produced  by  music,  whether  through  the  auditory 
nerve,  through  the  great  but  dull  ear  of  the  whole  sensory 
nervous  system  or  directly  through  the  other  nervous 
systems,  and  when  we  have  carefully  observed  and  noted 
the  influence  upon  the  action  of  the  heart  by  various 
classes  of  music  and  the  consequent  cerebral  reactions 
growing  out  of  its  variations,  have  we  sounded  the  depths 
of  the  mysteries  of  the  appeal  of  music  to  the  human 
soul?  Is  the  difference  of  impression  between  ‘‘The 
Song  of  the  Evening  Star”  from  “  Tannhauser  ”  and 
“  The  Wedding  March  ”  from  “  Lohengrin  ”  all  covered 
by  the  investigator’s  tabulation  of  heart  beats? 

Bartholomew  earnestly  protests :  “  The  fact  is,  that  the 
physiological  element  is  not  the  whole  of  sound  experi¬ 
ence.  There  is  something  higher  in  musical  sounds  than 
mere  sensuous  delight.  The  pleasure  of  music  is  not  all 
in  the  ear,  any  more  than  beauty  is  all  in  the  eye.  We 
can  never  explain  Beethoven’s  Ninth  Symphony  by  say¬ 
ing  that  it  is  nothing  more  than  excitement  of  our  nervous 
system  by  means  of  external  sound  waves.”  But  if  “  the 
physiological  element  is  not  the  whole  of  sound  experi¬ 
ence  ”  what  is  there  beyond  ?  There  must  be  something 
deeper  in  music  than  a  mere  appeal  to  the  nervous  system 
of  the  hearer.  All  the  way  along  there  has  been  a  hint 
of  feeling  and  emotion,  but  as  elusive  as  the  shining  of 
heat  lightning  in  the  evening  sky.  Surely  there  must 
be  a  path  somewhere  through  which  we  may  discover 
the  deeper  spiritual  truth  of  music. 

Perhaps  this  apparent  emotionality  of  music  may  fur¬ 
nish  a  clue  worth  following  up.  It  seems  wise  to  make 


122 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


a  hurried  survey  of  man’s  emotional  life ;  the  solution  of 
the  problem  may  lie  there. 

5.  The  Emotions  and  the  Nerves 

Human  emotions  represent  too  large  and  complex  a 
subject  for  full  consideration  here.  We  must  be  satis¬ 
fied  with  a  hurried  study  of  the  relations  between  them 
and  the  human  nervous  system.  The  following  state¬ 
ments  may  be  accepted  as  fairly  accurate. 

(a)  The  seat  of  the  intellectual  life  is  in  the  cerebrum 
or  front  lobe  of  the  brain.  The  seat  of  the  emotions  is 
in  the  rest  of  the  nervous  system, — the  cerebellum,  or 
back  lobe  of  the  brain,  the  spinal  cord  and  the  smaller 
nerve  centers  of  the  sensory  and  sympathetic  nervous 
systems.  Excessive  emotional  strain  will  give  pain  in  the 
back  of  the  head,  and  in  the  back,  and  also  abnormal 
nervous  sensations  throughout  the  body. 

( b )  Emotions  have  an  extraordinary  effect  upon  the 
nervous  system,  either  stimulating  or  depressing. 

(c)  The  agreeable  emotions, — intellectual  or  social  in¬ 
terest,  hope,  courage,  love,  altruistic  sympathy,  self-com- 
plaisance,  gratified  vanity  or  desire,  and  the  like,  stimulate 
the  nervous  system  and  through  that  the  whole  physical 
life.  The  quickened  circulation  shows  in  eyes,  in  flushed 
face,  in  the  resonant  voice,  in  the  more  vigorous  bearing. 

(J)  The  disagreeable  emotions, — rage,  fear,  appre¬ 
hension,  disappointment,  hate,  suffering, — are  all  ex¬ 
tremely  depressing  to  the  nerves,  as  may  be  seen  from 
the  pallor  of  the  face  or  the  trembling  limbs.  There  may 
be  stupor,  apparent  callousness,  inability  to  weep,  or  they 
may  cause  loss  of  nervous  control  as  in  hysteria.  Faint¬ 
ing  and  even  death  follow  from  this  extreme  depression. 

(e)  The  marks  of  emotion  in  countenance  and  body, 
and  the  attitudes  and  actions  expressing  emotions,  are  not 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC’S  ACTION  123 


so  much  primary  expressions  of  feeling  as  secondary 
muscular  results  of  the  nervous  effects. 

(/)  Emotions  are  intensified  and  their  nervous  effects 
are  made  more  poignant  by  surrounding  circumstances 
or  by  allowing  the  mind  to  dwell  upon  their  causes,  just  as 
in  music,  rhythm,  discord,  force,  and  pitch  intensify  the 
effect  of  the  music  itself. 

( g )  There  is  a  constant  flow  of  emotion  in  the  human 
mind  and  the  corresponding  tension  of  the  nerves  is  ever 
fluctuating  with  the  greater  or  less  intensity  of  the  feel¬ 
ing. 

(h)  The  effects  of  emotion  on  the  nerves,  like  the 
effects  of  music,  are  really  only  twofold,  stimulating  and 
depressing.  The  differences  of  intensity  and  extent  of 
stimulation  and  depression  are  the  only  variations  in 
either  direction.  A  man  weeps, — it  may  be  from  grief 
or  from  rage ;  you  can  hardly  distinguish  from  his  facial 
expression  which  emotion  moves  him.  A  man  weeps, — 
it  may  be  from  joy  or  sympathy;  again  his  facial  expres¬ 
sions  give  no  clue.  But  you  can  distinguish  between  the 
exhilaration  of  joy  and  the  depression  of  rage  in  spite  of 
the  common  term  of  tears. 

( i )  There  is  a  great  deal  of  complexity  in  emotions. 
One  can  take  pleasure  in  being  sad.  It  may  be  very 
pleasing  in  memory  to  call  up  some  very  unhappy  experi¬ 
ence.  One  may  sadly  deplore  the  death  of  a  friend  and 
yet  rejoice  over  his  release  from  intolerable  pain.  This 
complexity,  as  well  as  the  difference  in  the  character  of 
emotions  and  their  endless  variety  in  intensity,  just  as  in 
music,  gives  an  inexhaustible  number  of  phases  of  nerv¬ 
ous  tension. 

(/)  The  nervous  impression  of  an  emotion  in  no  way 
records  the  occasion  of  that  emotion.  Whether  the 
nervous  shock  of  fear  is  produced  by  a  fall,  an  unex- 


124 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


pected  gunshot,  or  a  clap  on  the  shoulder,  the  effect  is 
practically  the  same. 

(k)  It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  a  wide  range  in  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  nervous  tension.  There  is  constant 
change,  reflecting  the  activities  of  the  intellect.  The 
nerves  seem  to  crave  this  unremitting  variation,  as  well 
as  the  mind,  as  seen  in  the  desire  for  pleasure,  and  in 
the  distress  and  even  nervous  collapse  caused  by  a  dull, 
uneventful  life.  The  effect  of  music  on  the  nerves  is  one 
method  of  supplying  this  fundamental  demand  of  the 
nervous  system. 


REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  is  the  primary  effect  of  music? 

2.  What  does  Bartholomew  say  about  the  nervous  system? 

3.  How  does  music  convey  the  idea  of  colour  to  the  mind? 

4.  What  is  the  general  effect  of  major  music  on  the  nerves 
and  how  is  it  modified? 

5.  Minor  music  being  fundamentally  depressing,  how  can  it 
be  made  to  produce  an  opposite  effect? 

6.  What  is  the  modifying  effect  of  rhythm? 

7.  What  influence  have  discords? 

8.  How  does  varying  pitch  affect  the  nerves? 

9.  What  effect  has  varying  loudness  or  force? 

10.  What  additional  modifying  factor  is  discovered? 

11.  What  is  the  resultant  of  these  many  factors? 

12.  What  is  the  basis  of  mental  stimulation  by  music? 

13.  Illustrate  this  stimulating  effect. 

14.  Is  this  physical  effect  the  ultimate  result  of  music? 

15.  Where  lies  the  clue  to  a  means  of  escape  from  this  dis¬ 

appointing  conclusion? 

16.  Where  is  the  seat  of  the  emotions? 

17.  What  is  the  effect  of  the  emotions  on  the  nerves? 

18.  What  emotions  stimulate  the  nerves? 

19.  What  emotions  depress  them? 

20.  How  are  the  nervous  effects  of  emotions  modified? 

21.  What  complexity  is  there  in  emotions? 

22.  Is  nervous  tension  constant? 


IX 


NERVOUS  CORRESPONDENCE  BETWEEN 
MUSIC  AND  EMOTION 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  A  chart  can  be  placed  on  the  black¬ 
board  visualizing  the  relation  of  music  and  emotion  to  their 
common  term  of  nervous  impression.  Music — Nervous  Im¬ 
pression — Emotion,  developing  the  points  of  correspondence  de¬ 
veloped  in  Section  i. 

The  last  two  chapters  have  revealed  a  very  striking 
correspondence  between  the  nervous  reactions  to  music 
and  to  emotion.  It  may  not  be  amiss  to  review  that  cor¬ 
respondence  and  bring  out  its  salient  points. 

i.  Correspondence  Between  Musical  and 
Emotional  Nervous  Impressions 

(a)  Major  or  exhilarating  music  corresponds  to  agree¬ 
able  emotion. 

( b )  Minor  or  depressing  music  corresponds  to  dis¬ 
agreeable  emotion. 

( c )  Both  music  and  emotion  are  intensified  by  subordi¬ 
nate  elements  and  concomitants. 

( d )  Both  music  and  emotion  produce  an  infinitely 
varied  range  of  nervous  impressions  fluctuating  in  in¬ 
tensity  from  instant  to  instant. 

( e )  The  nervous  impressions  of  both  music  and  emo¬ 
tion  are  indeterminate  and  vague. 

(/)  Minor  and  other  depressing  music  may  give  pleas¬ 
ure,  just  as  may  the  memories  of  disagreeable  emotions. 

( g )  Music,  therefore,  produces  the  same  general  effect 
upon  the  nervous  system  that  the  emotions  produce 

I25 


126 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


through  the  mind.  Emotions  and  their  corresponding 
musical  expression  have  a  common  term  of  nervous 
effect. 

2.  This  Correspondence  No  Mere  Coincidence 

This  correspondence  is  not  an  accident.  It  is  the  key 
to  the  relation  of  music  and  emotion.  We  are  escaped 
from  the  materialistic  sensuousness  of  Herbartism. 
Music  makes  a  nervous  impression  much  fainter  than 
does  emotion,  but  that  impression  suggests  to  the  sub¬ 
conscious  mind  a  similar  previous  nervous  impression 
made  by  an  emotion.  The  relation  is  immediately  estab¬ 
lished  and  with  the  music  comes  the  faint  glow  of  an 
indeterminate  vague  emotion.  The  original  emotion 
made  its  exposure  in  the  nervous  camera.  The  music  de¬ 
velops  and  prints  that  exposure.  The  result  is  not  the 
original  scene,  but  a  mere  miniature  of  it.  In  a  photo¬ 
graph  or  painting  many  a  commonplace,  even  an  ugly 
scene,  has  a  beauty  before  unsuspected.  Many  an  un¬ 
happy  experience  gets  a  glow  of  charm  in  the  memory. 

On  investigation  it  will  be  found  that  many  emotions 
have  nervous  effects  so  nearly  the  same  that  it  is  difficult 
to  define  the  difference.  This  indeterminateness  of  the 
nervous  impression  produced  by  the  emotion  is  shared 
by  that  made  by  music.  Hence  the  correspondence  be¬ 
tween  them  is  extremely  general  and  not  specific.  It 
simply  depends  on  the  degree  of  stimulation  or  impres¬ 
sion,  of  nervous  pleasure  or  irritation. 

A  given  composition  will  make  a  nervous  impression 
approximately  the  same  as  a  number  of  very  different 
emotions  and  it  will  depend  on  the  tendency,  bias,  or  habit 
of  the  perceiving  mind  which  of  these  emotions  will  be 
suggested.  Here  will  be  found  the  occasion  of  the  in¬ 
determinateness  and  confusion  of  the  induced  or  second- 


NERVOUS  CORRESPONDENCE 


127 


ary  emotion  roused  by  music  and  of  its  varying  sug¬ 
gestiveness  to  different  individuals.  A  sudden  discordant 
clash  in  orchestra,  piano,  or  organ,  will  simply  shock  the 
nervous  system,  but  will  suggest  to  different  people  a 
murder,  an  explosion,  a  battle,  a  vague  catastrophe,  a 
fall,  bad  news,  etc.,  as  either  of  these  would  have  pro¬ 
duced  the  same  general  nervous  impression. 

3.  Emotions  Translated  into  Music 

Emotions  may  be  translated  into  music  and  music  into 
emotion  by  means  of  their  corresponding  variations  of 
nervous  impressions.  Exhilarating  music  and  agreeable 
emotions  produce  a  like  impression ;  they  have  a  common 
term  in  kind,  although  not  in  degree.  The  same  is  true  of 
depressing  music  and  disagreeable  emotions,  and  so  on 
through  their  several  modifications.  The  emotion  is  due 
to  a  reaction  from  the  mind’s  experience;  the  music 
comes  from  the  fundamentally  mechanical  source  with¬ 
out  ;  but  the  nervous  reactions  may  correspond  very 
closely.  The  music  does  not  create  an  emotion ;  it  merely 
moves  the  nervous  system  as  would  an  emotion,  and  the 
nervous  reaction  reaches  the  consciousness  with  a  vague, 
misleading  but  contentless  sense  of  emotion. 

4.  The  Vagueness  of  Musical  Feeling 

It  must  always  be  remembered  that  music  itself  can 
only  express  the  nervous  impression  made  by  an  emotion, 
not  the  fact  or  thought  that  waked  that  emotion,  and  that 
that  nervous  impression  is  vague  and  indeterminate.  The 
feelings  roused  by  a  high  mountain,  by  the  ocean,  or  by  a 
thoughtful  survey  of  the  starry  sky,  affect  the  nerves  so 
nearly  alike  that  music  cannot  express  the  difference.  A 
given  symphony  in  elevated  style  might  be  called  The 


128 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


Himalayan,  The  Ocean,  or  The  Niagara  Symphony  with¬ 
out  any  incongruity  in  either  case. 

The  family  of  the  boy  Schumann  did  him  a  grave  in¬ 
justice  when  they  laughed  at  the  wild  lugubriousness  of 
his  funeral  march  in  memory  of  his  dead  canary  bird. 
The  actual  effect  of  his  grief  over  the  death  of  his  pet 
on  the  nerves  of  the  boy  was  exactly  the  same  as  that 
which  would  be  made  on  those  of  mature  persons  by 
grief  over  the  loss  of  a  near  relative  or  friend.  Music 
cannot  distinguish  between  the  death  of  a  canary  bird 
and  that  of  a  mother. 

Here  is  the  weakness  of  program  music.  In  their  effort 
to  define  the  musically  indefinable,  modern  composers 
have  descended  to  mechanical  tricks  and  mimetic  pas¬ 
sages  that  are  not  music.  When  it  becomes  baldly  de¬ 
scriptive,  it  is  no  longer  music,  but  more  or  less  skillful 
mimicry  or  sleight  of  hand.  When  Beethoven  introduced 
into  his  Pastoral  Symphony  the  notes  of  the  cuckoo,  he 
explained  to  a  friend  that  he  did  it  as  a  joke.  Richard 
Storrs  Willis  says  regarding  this  phrase  of  the  symphony, 
“  Beethoven  for  the  moment  ceases  to  be  Beethoven  to  be 
a  cuckoo ;  but  in  cuckoo  music,  the  cuckoo  herself  is  cer¬ 
tainly  the  better  musician  of  the  two.” 

Program  music  may  succeed,  provided  that  the  theme 
chosen  has  a  really  emotional  appeal  to  humanity  at  large 
and  that  that  emotional  appeal  is  in  some  way  brought 
home  to  the  hearer,  and  provided  that  the  music  in  a 
spontaneous  way  reproduces  the  nervous  impression  of 
that  emotion  in  all  its  fluctuations  and  variations.  But 
when  Wagner  makes  the  orchestra  sway  to  the  flutterings 
of  Isolde’s  scarf,  he  is  out  of  the  realm  of  music,  striking 
though  the  effect  may  be. 

The  feelings  engendered  by  music  are  vague  because 
they  have  been  mechanically  produced  from  without, — as 


NERVOUS  CORRESPONDENCE 


129 


by  weather  conditions  or  by  a  drug, — and  have  no  mental 
content.  The  consciousness  of  a  nervous  impression  ris¬ 
ing  in  the  minds  gives  a  suggestion  of  emotionality  but 
without  any  basis  of  thought,  desire,  impulse  or  experi¬ 
ence,  supplying  no  fixed,  clear  images  or  cognitions  to  the 
mind. 

There  may  be  subconscious  memories  of  like  nervous 
impressions,  made  by  actual  emotions  and  these,  with  the 
stimulus  supplied  by  music  to  the  imagination,  yield  only 
the  stuff  that  dreams  are  made  of.  Given  music  does  not 
yield  a  definite  emotion  in  which  all  the  hearers  may  share 
alike,  but  a  ghostly  shadow  of  an  emotion  into  which  the 
hearer  will  read  his  own  experience. 

A  nocturne  from  Chopin  is  played.  It  is  sad,  depress¬ 
ing,  melancholy,  and  yet  gives  pleasure.  To  a  widow  it 
will  bring  memories  of  her  husband  that  give  her  sad 
comfort.  To  a  lover  it  will  suggest  the  charming  qual¬ 
ities  of  his  bride-to-be,  from  whom  he  is  parted. 

It  is  this  glorifying  power  of  memory  or  in  the  min¬ 
gling  of  memory  of  happiness  with  subconscious  recogni¬ 
tion  of  present  limitation  or  deprivation  that  the  charm  of 
depressing  music  is  found.  These  mental  ghosts  that 
walk  in  memory’s  corridors  are  different  in  different  peo¬ 
ple  and  hence  the  mental  and  emotional  effects  of  music 
also  differ. 

5.  Supplying  an  Intellectual  Basis  for  Musical 

Nervous  Impression 

The  very  indeterminateness  of  the  nervous  impression 
made  by  music  leads  to  two  results.  The  mind  demands 
a  concrete  reason  for  that  impression  and  in  memory  or 
in  imagination  will  seek  to  find  it.  This  secondary, 
reminiscential  emotion,  a  very  faint  reverberation  of  past 
emotional  experience,  seeks  a  definite  intellectual  basis. 


130 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


This  stimulates  the  mental  action,  already  quickened  by 
the  nervous  effects  of  music,  and  develops  responsiveness 
to  outside  suggestion. 

Here  is  the  great  opportunity  for  the  prefatory  or  con¬ 
temporaneous  comment,  or  for  the  text  which  accom¬ 
panies  the  music.  It  is  evident  that  when  music  is  ac¬ 
companied  by  a  definite  statement  appealing  to  the 
thought,  imagination,  desire,  or  sensibility,  creating  an 
emotional  nervous  impression  corresponding  to  it,  the 
composite  impression  is  much  deeper  than  either  alone 
would  make. 

There  is  a  distinct  difference  between  the  nervous  ef¬ 
fect  of  music  and  of  the  spoken  word.  The  former  acts 
directly  upon  the  nerves,  the  latter  reaches  the  nerves 
through  the  mind  by  means  of  the  idea  conveyed  by  the 
word.  Music  impresses  the  nerves;  the  nerves  demand 
of  the  mind  the  appropriate  idea.  The  word  on  the  other 
hand  supplies  an  idea  to  the  mind ;  the  idea  produces  the 
reaction  on  the  mind  we  call  emotion  and  the  emotion 
affects  the  nerves.  The  process  is  actually  inverted. 

The  emotion  is  intensified  by  the  music,  and  the  music 
is  made  more  expressive  and  pleasing  by  the  emotion.  It 
follows  that  wherever  it  is  possible  to  make  the  emotional 
and  the  musical  impression  upon  the  nervous  system 
practically  to  coincide,  music  may  be  used  to  strengthen 
the  corresponding  emotion  on  the  subjective  and  to 
express  it  on  the  objective  side. 

6.  Association  of  Ideas  With  Music 

In  this  indefiniteness  of  nervous  impression  and  the 
eagerness  of  the  mind  to  find  a  positive  intellectual  basis 
for  the  induced  feeling,  lies  the  power  of  associated  ideas. 
The  memory  will  call  up  a  definite  idea  which  in  any  way 
has  been  clearly  associated  with  a  nervous  excitation 


NERVOUS  CORRESPONDENCE 


131 


much  more  easily  and1  quickly  than  it  will  an  emotion. 
Once  get  a  definite  relation  established  between  the  nerv¬ 
ous  effect  produced  by  a  given  style  of  music  and  a  given 
idea  and  the  former  will  inevitably  suggest  the  latter. 

Once  having  accepted  a  mental  image,  or  cognition,  or 
experience,  with  a  given  piece  of  music,  or  even  a  class 
cf  music,  the  mental  association  of  ideas  is  mysteriously 
strong!  One  man  hears  a  popular  Christian  carol  in 
triple  time  and  only  finds  it  pleasing  and  expressive  of  the 
Christmas  joy.  He  does  not  dance,  does  not  attend 
dances.  The  triple  time  in  his  mind  is  not  associated 
with  things  frivolous.  The  man  at  his  side  has  been  more 
or  less  worldly-minded,  danced,  attended  balls ;  to  him  the 
movement  of  the  triple  time  carol  brings  up  unworthy 
associations,  and  he  is  disgusted  with  the  association  of 
such  music  with  a  holy  theme.  A  German  comes  to 
America  and  hears  in  an  aristocratic  church  of  high  in¬ 
tellectual  pretensions  the  common  metre  tune,  “  Rhine,” 
and  is  fairly  outraged  by  the  incongruity  of  the  church 
use  of  a  tune  he  sang  in  his  drinking  bouts  at  a  German 
university.  It  is  all  due  to  the  peremptoriness  of  the  law 
of  the  association  of  ideas. 

Here  we  find  the  paradox  of  antagonistic  impressions 
made  by  the  same  music.  Every  man  brings  to  a  given 
piece  of  music  his  own  personal  history  through  his 
nervous  history.  The  Pope  wants  no  women,  but  does 
want  the  Gregorian  style.  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
does  not  want  Gregorian  music,  but  the  syllabic  and 
stately  anthems  of  Blow  or  Croft.  The  Broad  church 
rector  or  the  dignified  pastor  of  a  great  city  church  wants 
the  churchly  canticles  and  the  severest  cathedral  tunes  of 
Dykes.  The  Low  church  curate  or  the  suburban  minister 
wants  the  more  cheerful  things  of  Barnby  and  Smart,  as 
well  as  the  best  of  the  popular  gospel  songs.  In  this  h<s 


132 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


approaches  the  popular  Methodist  who  wants  a  greater 
proportion  of  gospel  and  Sunday-school  songs,  and  so  on 
down  to  the  Salvation  Army.  It  is  the  inexorable  law  of 
the  association  of  ideas  with  the  nervous  impressions  pro¬ 
duced  by  music. 

7.  Incongruities  of  Associated  Ideas 

It  is  a  little  startling  sometimes  to  find  an  organist  who 
eases  his  angry  mind  with  more  or  less  picturesque  lan¬ 
guage  tabooed  in  respectable  society,  and  goes  out  semi- 
occasionally  with  “  the  boys  ”  for  “  a  night  of  it de¬ 
nounce  certain  music  as  irreligious  and  profane — music 
that  is  actually  in  use  among  exceedingly  pious  and  de¬ 
vout  people. 

The  organist  is  sincere.  He  does  not  recognize  the 
value  of  music  in  sheer  physical  exhilaration  and  inspira¬ 
tion  in  church  service,  nor  its  pedagogical  value,  nor  its 
deepening  of  emotions  proper  to  a  service  of  other  than 
exclusively  worshipful  feelings,  much  less  the  needed 
adaptation  to  the  nerves  of  the  given  congregation.  His 
only  idea  of  religion  is  impressive,  solemn  ceremony.  All 
else  is  to  him  unfitting. 

It  is  the  inescapable  law  of  the  association  of  certain 
ideas  with  certain  nervous  impressions  made  by  certain 
kinds  of  music.  The  music  he  denounces,  because  of  its 
cheap  rhythms,  is  actually  painful  to  him  because  the 
nervous  impressions  he  accepts  as  religious  and  the  irre¬ 
ligious  nervous  impressions  associated  with  the  rhythmi¬ 
cal  music  are  at  war  within  him. 

8.  Prejudices  Due  to  Improperly  Associated  Ideas 

This  law  of  association  of  ideas  with  music,  or  rather 
with  its  nervous  impressions,  has  some  strange  results. 
An  ambitious  disciple  of  general  and  up-to-date  culture 


NERVOUS  CORRESPONDENCE 


133 


can  jump  from  an  ignorance  of  anything  but  the  com¬ 
monest  street  ditty  to  the  apparently  full  appreciation  of 
Richard  Strauss’  organized  cacophonies,  simply  by  read¬ 
ing  in  a  newspaper  that  high  authorities  in  music  approve 
of  them. 

Prejudice  favourable  or  unfavourable  regarding  au¬ 
thors,  publishers,  classes  of  music,  etc.,  often  not  only 
seemingly,  but  really  unreasonable,  depends  on  this  asso¬ 
ciation  of  ideas  with  nervous  impressions. 

Without  giving  the  cause,  Gurney  recognizes  the  fact: 
“Another  common  source  of  misconception  is  the  very 
natural  habit  of  judging  music  in  connection  with  words 
and  scenes  to  which  it  has  been  made  an  adjunct.  .  .  . 

While  we  call  certain  tunes  vulgar  in  the  first  instance, 
perhaps  from  their  vulgar  concomitants,  and  even  after 
abstracting  them  from  these,  feel  no  inclination  to  recall 
the  term,  seeing  how  trivial  and  fleeting  is  any  pleasure 
they  are  capable  of  giving,  we  may  still  perceive  that  they 
often  give  a  certain  pleasure  to  children  and  to  adults  of 
small  musical  development  who  show  no  inclination  to 
vulgarity  in  other  ways ;  .  .  .  We  have  no  grounds 

to  consider  them  vulgarizing  to  the  moral  character,  any 
more  than  a  taste  for  bad  puns,  or  for  garlic.,,  This  dif¬ 
ference  of  the  effect  of  music  upon  people  of  high  general 
culture  and  upon  musically  unsophisticated  persons,  lies 
quite  largely  in  the  established  association  of  ideas. 

9.  Spontaneity  in  Music 

Spontaneity  in  music  is  the  close  correspondence  be¬ 
tween  the  sequence  of  the  nervous  impressions  in  music 
and  their  natural  sequence  in  emotion.  When  music  is 
studied,  made  out  of  sheer  knowledge  and  skill  in  in¬ 
tellectually  handling  musical  materials,  it  may  be  tech¬ 
nically  interesting,  but  it  is  sure  to  violate  the  laws  of  the 


134 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


sequence  of  emotions  in  their  varying  intensity.  The 
nervous  impressions  are  unnatural  in  their  order,  and 
hence  give  one  uneasiness  and  even  pain  instead  of  pleas¬ 
ure.  We  call  the  music  stiff,  angular,  artificial. 

The  composition  that  has  “  grip  ”  on  us  is  based  on  the 
composer’s  intuition  of  the  natural  sequence  of  varia¬ 
tions  of  nervous  tension  due  to  his  personal  experience 
of  the  nervous  impressions  of  emotion.  Yet  as  one  may 
learn  to  like  certain  foods,  repulsive  at  first,  or  as  a 
flagellant  monk  comes  to  take  pleasure  in  the  self-inflicted 
scourgings,  so  one  may  learn  to  appreciate  technically  fine 
music  that  has  no  normal  spontaneous  appeal — that  really 
is  artificial  music. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  lines  of  correspondence  are  there  between  the  nerv¬ 
ous  effects  of  emotion  and  of  music? 

2.  How  does  music  suggest  emotion? 

3.  Is  this  correspondence  of  nervous  effect  between  music 
and  emotion  definite? 

4.  How  is  music  translated  into  emotion  and  emotion  into 
music? 

5.  What  are  the  limitations  of  musical  expression? 

6.  Is  program  music  psychologically  justified? 

7.  How  does  music  stimulate  the  imagination? 

8.  What  two  results  grow  out  of  the  indefiniteness  of  the 
nervous  impression  made  by  music? 

9.  What  is  the  interaction  between  music  and  emotion? 

10.  Where  lies  the  power  of  ideas  associated  with  music? 

11.  What  is  the  occasion  of  differences  of  judgment  of  a 
given  piece  of  music? 

12.  To  what  are  incongruous  ideas  and  unreasonable  prej¬ 
udices  due? 

13.  Why  do  some  musical  compositions  seem  spontaneous  and 
appeal  widely,  while  others  appear  stiff  and  artificial? 


X 


SOME  COROLLARIES  OF  MUSICAL 
PSYCHOLOGY 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  This  is  an  important  chapter,  as  it 
sums  up  the  practical  applications  of  the  foregoing  study  of  the 
reaction  of  the  human  body  and  mind  to  the  use  of  music.  Un¬ 
usual  attention  should  be  given  to  emphasizing  the  points  made, 
some  of  which  are  contrary  to  generally  accepted  assumptions 
which  are  without  any  basis  whatever. 

If  the  outline  of  musical  psychology  developed  in  pre¬ 
ceding  chapters  is  accepted,  certain  corollaries  follow 
inevitably. 

i.  Music  Has  No  Inherent  Moral  Character 

If  music  produces  only  a  nervous  impression  of  vague 
indefinite  character,  it  must  be  essentially  non-moral.  It 
has  no  moral,  religious,  or  even  cultural  value  of  its  own. 
It  simply  intensifies  what  it  finds  associated  with  it  in 
environment,  associated  exercises,  or  in  text.  In  so  far 
as  it  is  out  of  harmony  with  these,  it  produces  nervous 
and  mental  distress. 

(a)  Used  for  Antagonistic  Purposes.  It  is  used  by 
managers  of  places  of  ill  repute  and  by  the  preacher,  each 
for  his  own  purpose,  as  far  apart  as  the  antipodes. 

( b )  No  Moral  Effect  is  Found  in  Musical  People. 
Shakespeare  says  that  “  music  hath  charms  to  soothe  the 
savage  breast,”  but  history  does  not  justify  the  remark. 
From  Dionysius  the  Younger  of  Syracuse,  through  the 
debauched  Ptolemies  including  Cleopatra,  the  last  of  the 
race,  Nero  the  cruel  fiddler  and  tenor  soloist,  the  degener¬ 
ate  flute  player,  Heliogabolus,  the  music-loving  but  de- 

*35 


136 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


praved  Henry  the  Eighth  of  England,  Charles  the  Ninth 
of  France  with  a  passion  for  the  violin,  known  as  con¬ 
senting  to  the  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew’s  night,  down 
to  William  the  Second,  Emperor  of  Germany,  who  wrote 
operas,  and  approved  the  unspeakable  atrocities  com¬ 
mitted  wherever  his  armies  and  those  of  his  allies 
marched,  the  record  of  royal  music  lovers  is  foul  with 
vice  and  cruelty.1 

The  decadent  period  of  the  Roman  Empire,  during  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries  was  notable  for  its  public  and 
private  devotion  to  music.  Marcellinus  complains  that 
science  and  philosophy  have  given  place  to  music,  and 
libraries  are  closed  like  funeral  vaults.  Chrysostom  in¬ 
veighs  against  the  Christian  Church  as  being  better  able  to 
sing  the  frivolous  and1  unclean  songs  then  current  than 
the  psalms  and  songs  of  the  church. 

The  recent  autobiography  of  Richard  Wagner  in  itself 
would  refute  the  idea  of  the  moral  influence  of  music. 
No  meaner,  more  ungrateful,  cheaply  vain,  unreliable, 
untruthful,  basely  cringing  spirit  ever  came  into  the 
limelight  of  publicity  than  the  composer  of  “  Tann- 
hauser  ”  and  “  Parsifal.”  An  examination  of  the  inner 
life  of  other  composers  and  musical  artists  might 
find  no  parallel  to  Wagner,  but  would  disclose  no  support 
to  the  theory  that  music  is  morally  uplifting. 

The  old  German  rhyme, 

“  Wo  man  singt,  da  lass  dich  ruhig  nieder, 

Boese  Menschen  haben  keine  Lieder,”  2 

has  more  geniality  than  truth.  It  will  do  as  a  rhetorical 

1  See  “  Music,  Monarchs,  and  the  Savage  Breast  ”  by  Frederick 
H.  Martens  in  The  Musical  Quarterly,  April,  1921. 

2  Where  people  sing  there  fear  no  wrongs. 

For  evil  spirits  have  no  songs. 


COEOLLAEIES  OF  MUSICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  137 


sentiment  when  referring  to  music,  but  hardly  as  a  rule 
in  the  actual  dealings  with  human  nature. 

( c )  Mere  Music  Cannot  Replace  Religious  Exercises. 
Men  who  wish  to  introduce  the  artistic  conception  of 
church  music  into  our  more  ambitious  churches  in  the 
form  of  elaborate  quartets,  solos,  and  organ  music,  and 
who  often  strive  to  displace  Sunday  evening  services  with 
miscellaneous  programs  of  music  and  sacred  concerts, 
often  urge  the  moral  influence  of  music. 

The  only  cultivating  influence  music  exerts  is  to  refine 
and  sensitize  the  nerves;  but  that  may  prepare  the  way 
for  a  more  exquisite  selfishness,  for  a  more  delicate 
sensuality,  for  a  more  dainty  worldly-mindedness,  as  well 
as  for  a  more  noble  life. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is  that  music  in  itself  is  neither 
religious  nor  irreligious,  neither  moral  nor  immoral.  By 
mental  association  certain  styles  of  music  may  come  to  be 
recognized  as  religious,  just  as  Wagner  in  his  later  operas 
so  connected  certain  phrases  with  certain  people,  objects 
or  places,  as  to  call  each  to  the  memory  of  the  hearer 
when  its  corresponding  phrase  appeared  in  the  music. 

Even  then,  aside  from  the  mere  mental  suggestion,  it 
may  have  no  religious  value.  When  rendered  to  give 
merely  artistic  pleasure,  or  as  a  means  of  musical  culture, 
the  most  profoundly  religious  solos,  cantatas,  or  oratorios, 
lose  all  religious  value  to  the  great  majority  of  the  hear¬ 
ers. 

An  organ  recital  may  be  very  refining  to  the  sensibilities 
and  add  to  one’s  culture  and  capacity  for  enjoyment,  but 
it  has  no  moral  or  religious  value,  no  matter  how  solemn 
or  impressive  its  strains  may  be.  A  religious  concert  may 
be  the  reverse  of  religious  in  its  influence,  if  the  religious 
character  of  the  texts  used  is  ignored,  or  if  they  have  no 
clearly  religious  value,  and  if  the  motive  of  the  musicians 


138 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


is  personal  display,  whether  of  superior  technical  skill  or 
of  high  musical  culture,  and  if  the  hearer  simply  takes 
personal  pleasure  and  delight  in  the  music. 

( d )  When  Music  Has  Religious  Value.  Music  may 
have  religious  value  (i)  When  the  associations  of 
time  and  place  suggest  religious  thoughts  and  feelings; 
(2)  when  preceded  or  accompanied  by  comment  of  a 
religious  nature;  (3)  when  set  to  a  text  having  religious 
ideas  and  expressing  religious  emotions  and  sung  in  a 
genuinely  religious  spirit;  (4)  when  written  in  a  style 
recognized  by  the  singer,  and  especially  by  the  hearer, 
as  fitted  for  religious  purposes,  because  of  the  previous 
association  of  the  style  with  religious  ideas  or  feelings. 
The  religious  element  must  be  injected  from  without  and 
must  be  very  definite  and  greatly  emphasized.  Mere 
association  cannot  be  depended  upon  to  secure  religious 
ends. 

( e )  The  Great  Categories  of  the  Mind.  The  human 
mind  in  its  legitimate  and  worthy  efforts  reaches  out  in 
five  different  directions :  after  truth  in  science,  philosophy, 
and  general  scholarship ;  after  practical  utilities,  personal 
and  altruistic ;  after  beauty  in  all  its  forms  and  phases ; 
after  things  moral  in  life  and  conduct,  particularly  in  the 
relation  between  man  and  man ;  and  after  things  religious 
in  the  relation  between  man  and  the  Great  Supreme 
Being. 

The  absolutely  symmetrical  mind  reaches  out  in  all 
these  directions  with  an  energy  proportionate  to  their 
several  importance.  But  the  average  mind  is  not  com¬ 
plete  and  symmetrical.  Some  men  pursue  knowledge  and 
have  little  or  no  regard  for  its  practical  results,  its  artistic 
values,  its  moral  influences,  or  its  relation  to  God.  Others 
esteem  truth,  beauty,  moral  influence,  or  religious  feeling 
only  as  they  produce  practical  results.  Some  men  are 


COROLLARIES  OF  MUSICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  139 


artists  only,  and  have  no  immediate  interest  in  science,  in 
practical  life,  in  morals,  or  in  religion.  In  fact,  the 
greater  the  tendency  to  emphasize  the  one  category,  and 
the  larger  the  talent  or  genius  a  person  possesses  for  that 
phase  of  human  endeavour,  the  more  certain  will  it  be 
that  the  others  will  be  ignored  or  even  antagonized. 

This  explains  why  the  intensely  artistic  and  equally 
religious  David  could  be  guilty  of  immoralities  that  would 
shut  him  out  of  decent  society  in  these  days.  It  also 
solves  the  mystery  why  some  severe  moralists  seem  to 
have  so  little  use  for  religion,  and  so  many  more  have 
no  appreciation  of  art.  If  Byron,  whose  defiant  im¬ 
moralities  scandalized  the  world,  wrote  verses  whose 
moral  beauty  is  inspiring,  or  Liszt  wrote  solemn 
masses  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  no  attractive  woman  was 
safe  under  his  influence,  it  is  because  these  things  are 
primarily  and  essentially  beautiful,  and  only  incidentally 
moral  and  religious.  If,  as  in  Byron’s  adventures  of 
Don  Juan,  and  Wagner’s  Tristan  and  Isolde,  the  immoral 
furnishes  phases  of  beauty,  these  artists  are  just  as  free 
to  give  the  full  power  of  their  genius  to  its  expression. 
The  beautiful  is  the  all-important  matter  with  the  ex¬ 
clusively  artistic  soul.  The  moral  and  immoral  is  sub¬ 
ordinate  and  of  value  only  as  it  serves  to  strengthen  the 
appeal  to  the  sense  of  the  beautiful. 

(/)  Beauty  and  Religion  Appeal  to  Different  Functions 
of  the  Mind.  But  this  lack  of  harmony  between  devotion 
to  the  beautiful  and  devotion  to  the  moral  and  religious 
is  made  more  striking  by  the  fact  that  they  appeal  to 
entirely  different  functions  of  the  human  mind.  Beauty 
appeals  to  the  selfish  sensibilities.  This  is  true  even  in 
its  sympathetic  and  tender  appeals.  Morality  and  religion 
are  essentially  altruistic  and  are  matters  of  will  and  char¬ 
acter.  There  may  be  exquisite  sensibility  and  little  force 


140 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


of  character.  There  may  even  be  intense  appreciation  of 
moral  and  spiritual  beauty,  and  yet  moral  and  religious 
character  may  be  entirely  wanting. 

(<7)  Music  May  be  Demoralizing.  So  far  from  music 
itself  having  a  moral  value,  its  exclusive  pursuit  is  actu¬ 
ally  demoralizing!  Its  fundamental  appeal  is  physical. 
It  increases  nervous  susceptibility  until  it  becomes  irri¬ 
tability.  Acting  on  the  nerves  in  a  way  analogous  to,  if 
not  corresponding  with,  the  effects  of  stimulating  and 
narcotic  drugs  like  opium  or  Indian  hemp,  it  occasionally 
produces  neurotic  effects  similar  in  kind,  if  not  in  degree. 
If  the  reader  will  review  the  irritable  musicians  of  his 
acquaintance,  he  will  find  more  or  less  evident  examples. 
Physicians  occasionally  forbid  musical  study  to  neuro¬ 
pathic  children. 

It  emphasizes  the  sensibilities  at  the  expense  of  the  will. 
It  makes  musical  enjoyment,  the  gratification  of  one’s 
musical  sensibilities,  the  chief  object  in  life.  It  is  there¬ 
fore  selfish  in  tendency  and  the  mental  attitude  thus  taken 
makes  more  powerful  the  appeal  of  other  desires  and 
passions. 


2.  Music  as  a  Means  to  an  End 

Since  music  has  varied  effects  upon  the  nervous  system 
much  as  have  the  stimulants  and  narcotics  used  by  physi¬ 
cians,  then  it  may  be  used  to  secure  definite  ends  of  a 
varied  character.  Exhilarating  music  will  give  inspira¬ 
tion  and  mental  stimulus.  Depressing  music  will  calm. 
Irritant  music  will  excite. 

Here  is  the  place  where  music  may  be  applied  to  its 
various  public  uses.  In  the  public  festival,  the  public 
funeral,  the  public  amusement,  the  political  campaign,  in 
any  movement  calling  for  the  stirring  up  of  the  feelings 
of  the  people,  music  may  lose  its  ideal  character  of  beauti- 


COKOLLAKIES  OF  MUSICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  141 


ful  expression  of  varied  human  feeling  and  passion  and 
become  an  applied  art. 

It  may  attract  attention  and  unify  the  scattered  persons 
whom  it  is  desired  to  influence ;  it  may  exhilarate  their 
spirits  and  stimulate  their  minds ;  it  may  intensify  feelings 
already  existent,  or  produce  a  keener  susceptibility  to 
the  means  to  be  used  to  rouse  them ;  it  may  even  be  used 
to  replace  undesirable  emotions,  such  as  rage  or  fear.  A 
brass  band  playing  cheerful  music  might  prove  a  better 
queller  of  an  excited,  bloodthirsty  mob  than  the  water 
thrown  by  a  company  of  firemen.  An  angry  audience 
may  be  placated  by  a  favourite  piece  of  music.  A  panic- 
stricken  crowd  may  be  calmed  by  a  stirring  march.  Good 
music  assures  the  success  of  a  parade,  of  a  political 
gathering,  of  a  public  banquet,  even  of  a  largely  attended 
restaurant.  The  immediate  nervous  effects  in  every  case 
are  vague  and  intangible,  but  none  the  less  powerful  and 
effective. 

3.  Music  Must  Be  Adapted  to  the  Nervous 
Systems  to  Be  Affected 

Just  as  a  wise  physician  will  adapt  both  the  medicine 
and  its  strength  to  the  vitality  or  susceptibility  of  his 
patients,  so  the  manager  of  the  music  intended  to  serve  a 
definite  purpose  must  take  into  account  the  particular 
class  of  nervous  systems  from  which  a  definite  reaction 
is  sought. 

In  the  difference  of  temperament  we  find  the  varying 
individuality  of  composers  and  artists.  There  are  national 
and  racial  characteristics  of  temperament  that  find  ex¬ 
pression  in  the  composition  or  rendition  of  music.8  Here 

*  “  The  natural  music  of  a  demonstrative  people  is  rhythmic 
and  lively;  of  a  saturnine  people,  gloomy;  of  a  melancholy  and 
poetical  people,  pathetic;  of  a  matter-of-fact  people,  simple, 


142 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


is  the  basis  of  nationalism  in  music.  It  follows  that 
music  may  be  entirely  successful  in  Germany  for  any 
specified  purpose,  yet  may  fail  in  accomplishing  that  pur¬ 
pose  in  Italy  or  the  United  States.  The  same  principle 
obtains  in  regard  to  classes  of  people  within  a  nation. 
The  nervous  tension  of  dwellers  in  New  York  City  is 
likely  to  be  much  higher  than  that  of  the  farmers  of 
Lewis  County  of  the  same  state.  Adaptation  of  music  to 
suit  these  differences  is  peremptory. 

4.  Three  Essential  Factors 

The  purpose  in  view  becomes  the  commanding  con¬ 
sideration  to  which  the  character,  grade,  quality  of  the 
music  are  subordinated.  Here  are  three  factors:  (a) 
The  purpose,  ( b )  the  people  to  be  affected,  and  ( c )  the 
music  to  be  used.  The  first  two  will  condition  the  last. 
On  the  nervous  organization  of  the  people,  their  suscepti¬ 
bility,  their  sophistication  or  native  simplicity,  their 
coarseness  or  refinement,  must  depend  the  musical  means 
to  be  employed  to  affect  the  nerves  and  through  these 
their  feelings.  The  music  must  impress  their  nerves 
agreeably,  by  adaptation  to  their  stage  of  susceptibility, 
and  to  their  sense  of  fitness.  In  some  communities  on 
some  occasions  a  “  jazz  ”  band  would  be  most  effective,  in 
another  a  brass  band,  in  more  refined  circles  an  orchestra, 
or  a  string  quartet — or  even  a  solo. 

It  is  not  only  a  question  of  fitness  in  the  ordinary  con¬ 
ventional  sense;  it  is  a  question  of  actual  efficiency  in 

direct,  and  unelaborated ;  of  a  savage  people,  wild  and  fierce ;  of  a 
lively  people,  merry  and  light ;  of  an  earnest  people,  dignified  and 
noble.  .  .  .  The  nature  of  man  still  governs  his  predilections, 

as  is  easily  seen  by  the  average  differences  of  taste  in  art  in  such 
countries  as  Italy,  France,  and  Germany.” — C.  Hubert  H.  Parry, 
“  The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of  Music,”  p.  61. 


COROLLARIES  OF  MUSICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  143 


securing  a  desired  definite  result.  Even  more  than  the 
instruments  employed  does  the  kind  of  music  selected 
have  an  influence  upon  the  nervous  impressions  sought. 
There  are  two  factors  here  to  be  considered :  The  nervous 
susceptibility  of  the  hearers,  and  the  normal  nervous 
reaction  of  the  particular  compositions  used.  To  select 
heavy,  lugubrious  music  for  a  merry  social  occasion 
simply  to  display  a  high  degree  of  musical  culture  is  no 
worse  than  to  play  a  Bach  fantasia  as  a  postlude  in  the 
average  church. 

5.  The  Therapeutic  Value  of  Music 

One  often  reads  in  the  public  press  articles  on  the 
curative  value  of  music,  and  a  sort  of  musical  pharma¬ 
copoeia  has  been  suggested.  From  what  has  been  said  of 
the  nervous  reactions  from  music,  it  will  be  clear  that 
there  is  a  considerable  basis  of  truth  to  the  suggestion. 
Indeed,  medicine  men  and  witch  doctors  among  savage 
tribes  in  all  ages  and  all  over  the  world  have  used  it  in 
their  incantations  over  their  patients.  David  was  using 
music  as  a  therapeutic  agent  when  he  played  before  Saul 
to  drive  out  the  evil  spirit  that  vexed  him. 

Dr.  McCosh  in  his  work  on  “  The  Emotions  ”  recog¬ 
nizes  the  therapeutic  value  of  working  on  the  emotions  in 
some  classes  of  disease;  on  exactly  the  same  lines  of 
treatment,  and  affecting  the  health  of  the  body  in  exactly 
the  same  manner,  musical  therapy  may  be  strongly  urged. 
Strong  emotions  often  induce  visions  and  hallucinations 
in  peculiarly  susceptible  people;  persons  of  like  nervous 
constitution  with  vivid  imagination  are  sometimes  sim¬ 
ilarly  affected  by  brilliant  or  dreamy  music. 

In  so  far  as  music  acts  through  the  nervous  system  on 
the  general  health,  it  may  be  of  service ;  this  is  peculiarly 
true  in  nervous  diseases.  In  cases  of  excitement,  calming 


144 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP  MUSIC 


music  will  be  indicated,  in  low  vitality  and  depression 
exhilarating  and  stimulating  compositions. 

There  are  several  difficulties:  there  can  be  no  element 
of  precision,  there  has  been  little  investigation  of  the 
therapeutic  value  of  different  compositions,  and  different 
people  react  in  diverse  ways  to  the  same  music.  Hence 
each  patient  presents  an  individual  problem. 

6.  The  Distress  Caused  by  Music 

The  correspondence  between  the  impression  of  music 
and  of  the  emotions  upon  the  nervous  system  explains 
why  any  incongruity  between  them  is  so  unpleasant.  To 
sing  the  noble  Long  Meter  Doxology  to  a  frivolous 
rhythmical  melody, — or  to  a  tender  and  plaintive  tune, — 
makes  two  antagonistic  nervous  impressions  and  produces 
actual  nervous  distress.  The  pain  a  grief-stricken  person 
feels  in  hearing  cheerful  music  is  actually  physical,  as 
well  as  mental. 

This  painful  sense  of  nervous  discord  will  affect  per¬ 
sons  in  direct  proportion  to  their  nervous  susceptibility  to 
music.  Individuals  whose  nervous  sensitiveness  has  been 
developed  by  general  culture,  or  by  wide  opportunities 
for  hearing  expressive  music,  will  be  more  affected  by 
such  incongruities  than  coarse,  untutored  persons.  In 
uncultured  communities  it  is  possible  to  sing  the  dox¬ 
ology  to  “  Duane  St.”  in  a  rapid  rhythmical  manner  with¬ 
out  a  bad  effect,  partly  because  the  people  are  not  alive 
to-  the  nervous  dissonance  produced,  partly  because  that 
dissonance  is  submerged  by  the  exhilaration  caused  by 
the  rhythm  and  the  general  participation.4 

4  Gurney  recognizes  this  fact  when  he  says :  “  The  love  of 
coarse  and  violent  sound  is  connected  with  the  mere  love  of 
violent  stimulation  and  manifests  the  exceptional  way  in  which 
the  stimulation  of  the  auditory  way  overflows  into  the  general 
nervous  system.” 


COROLLARIES  OF  MUSICAL  PSYCHOLOGY  145 


Just  as  persons  who  have  inherited  keen  moral  sensi¬ 
bilities  sometimes  develop  a  sensitiveness  of  conscience 
that  is  painful  to  themselves  and  a  serious  restraint  to 
their  practical  activities,  as  well  as  a  bar  to  their  asso¬ 
ciation  with  average  people  in  securing  practical  political 
or  municipal  reforms,  so  musical  people  occasionally 
develop  such  a  nervous  sensibility  that  they  feel  incon¬ 
gruities  not  apparent  even  to  the  cultivated  people  about 
them.  In  such  cases  susceptibility  degenerates  into  mere 
irritability.  Need  it  be  said  that  there  is  nothing  really 
admirable  in  such  morbid  sensitiveness,  nothing  trust¬ 
worthy  in  its  judgments? 

There  is  frequently  a  sense  of  nervous  dissonance 
among  persons  whose  emotions  or  feelings  have  an  im¬ 
proper  intellectual  basis.  The  person  who  associates 
exclusively  elevated  and  dignified  feelings  with  church 
work,  and  only  light,  frivolous  ideas  with  rhythmical 
music  will  feel  nervous  dissonances  in  average  church 
music  due  to  improper  coordination  of  nervous  impres¬ 
sions. 

7.  The  Intellectual  Side  of  Music 

Of  course,  there  is  an  intellectual  side  to  music  as  well, 
but  only  as  the  mind  observes  and  analyzes  the  impres¬ 
sions  made  upon  the  nervous  system.  The  material  of 
music  may  be  studied  in  a  formal,  abstract  way.  Musical 
compositions,  like  the  mediaeval  polyphonic  puzzles,  or 
even  some  of  Bach’s  fugues,  may  be  written  by  sheer 
mental  force,  showing  great  ingenuity  and  extraordinary 
mechanical  command  of  the  technical  resources  of  music, 
but  they  are  mere  puzzles,  mere  studies  in  organized 
noises,  not  music.  While  such  compositions  impress  the 
nervous  system,  of  course,  those  impressions  do  not 
coincide  with  any  emotional  impressions,  and  unless 


146 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP  MUSIC 


stimulated  by  purely  intellectual  interest  based  on 
technical  knowledge,  the  nerves  are  soon  wearied  and 
distressed. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  mere  intellectual  interest 
is  confined  to  highly  trained  musicians  and  is  not  to  be  ex¬ 
pected  from  even  a  congregation  of  high  general  culture. 
Organists  are  particularly  prone  to  ignore  the  impractica¬ 
bility  of  complicated  polyphonic  organ  compositions. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Can  moral  character  be  ascribed  to  music?  Why? 

2.  What  historical  proofs  of  the  unmoral  influence  of  music 
are  cited? 

3.  Can  musical  concerts  replace  religious  services  with 
spiritual  profit? 

4.  When  has  music  spiritual  value  and  when  not? 

5.  Give  the  five  great  categories  of  human  effort  and  their 
relation,  and  show  how  artistic  beauty  may  be  irreligious. 

6.  Explain  the  differing  appeals  of  Beauty  and  Morality. 

7.  How  may  music  become  demoralizing? 

8.  When  does  music  become  a  moral  factor? 

9.  In  what  way  may  music  become  simply  a  means  to  an 
ulterior  end? 

10.  In  using  music  as  a  means  to  an  end,  what  important 
factor  must  be  taken  into  account? 

11.  What  three  phases  of  music  as  an  applied  art  must  be 
considered? 

12.  If  music  has  an  effect  on  the  nervous  system,  how  can  it 
be  used  for  curative  purposes? 

13.  How  may  music  cause  distress  instead  of  pleasure? 

14.  Why  do  many  elaborate  compositions  weary  instead  of 
please? 


XI 


CHURCH  MUSIC  AS  APPLIED  ART 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  Another  important  chapter  on  whose 
full  acceptance  depends  the  success  of  the  student’s  efficient  use 
of  music.  The  student  should  by  all  means  be  freed  from  the 
merely  idealistic  conception  of  church  music  on  which  so  many 
ministers  and  musicians  actually  pride  themselves.  Make  effi¬ 
ciency  in  securing  spiritual  results  the  sole  criterion  of  church 
music. 

i.  Pure  Art  and  Applied  Art 

Pure  art  exists  for  its  own  sake;  it  has  no  ulterior 
purpose  beyond  the  expression  of  the  beautiful.  As  soon 
as  it  is  used  as  a  means  to  an  end,  it  is  no  longer  pure 
art,  but  an  applied  art  and  an  entirely  new  set  of  factors 
comes  into  play.  The  art  of  painting  is  pure  when  ap¬ 
plied  to  a  single  picture  expressing  some  beautiful  con¬ 
ception  of  the  artistic,  or  even  to  a  series  of  pictures  to 
decorate  some  noble  room  or  building,  for  beauty  is  their 
supreme  reason  for  existence.  But  paintings,  either 
singly  or  in  series  used  to  enhance  the  sacred  impression 
of  a  church  or  cathedral,  lose  their  absolute  artistic  in¬ 
dependence  to  a  certain  degree  and  become  examples  of 
applied  art.  This  is  even  more  true  of  pictorial  art  as 
applied  to  windows  or  tapestry.  Architecture  is  essen¬ 
tially  an  applied  art,  though  an  occasional  structure,  such 
as  a  triumphal  arch,  or  even  a  mausoleum,  deserves 
recognition  as  pure  art.  While  sculpture  and  carving 
may  be  looked  upon  as  pure  art,  being  used  for  the  sake 
of  the  beauty  they  supply,  without  serving  any  definite 
purpose,  yet  limiting  elements  must  be  recognized  in  the 
practical  ends  sought  in  the  structure  or  articles  so 
beautified. 


147 


148 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


2.  Music  as  Pure  Art 

Music  is  inherently  pure  art,  being  fundamentally 
sought  and  developed  for  the  artistic  satisfaction  it  af¬ 
fords.  Symphonies,  suites,  instrumental  quartets,  instru¬ 
mental  numbers,  operas,  oratorios,  arias,  the  greatest  of 
musical  compositions  have  no  reason  for  existence,  except 
their  beauty.  This  is  none  the  less  true  that  the  origin 
of  music  is  found  in  an  effort  to  assist  worship  by  its  use. 
From  the  very  beginning  it  rooted  deep  in  pure  artistic 
impulse,  even  though  the  largest  development  occurred  in 
its  application  first  to  religious  and  then  to  social  pur¬ 
poses.  The  great  composers  all  worshipped  at  the  shrine 
of  pure  beauty.  They  failed  when  they  tried  to  write 
to  add  attraction  to  special  occasions,  as  for  instances 
Beethoven’s  Mass  and  Wagner’s  Centennial  March.1 

3.  Music  as  Applied  Art 

None  the  less,  a  large  amount  of  music  has  been  written 
for  special  purposes,  of  a  varied  sort.  Dance  music, 
marches,  exhilarating  music  for  public  occasions,  such  as 
social  and  political  meetings,  entertainments — all  are  ex¬ 
amples  of  music  as  an  applied  art, — that  is,  art  with  a  pur¬ 
pose  beyond  the  beautiful.  That  purpose,  whatever  it 
may  be,  becomes  the  controlling  factor  in  the  music  used. 

The  fixed  principles  and  abstract  rules  of  pure  art  are 
not  abrogated,  but  are  subordinated  and  more  or  less 
obscured  by  the  variable  concrete  elements  the  purpose 
introduces.  This  subordination  prompts  the  leaders  in 
every  field  of  artistic  effort, — literature,  music,  sculpture, 
painting, — to  resent  the  introduction  of  such  a  purpose, 
whether  purely  social,  commercial,  pedagogical,  moral,  or 
religious. 

1  Beethoven’s  Mass  failed  as  a  mass,  not  as  music.  Wagner’s 
Centennial  March  failed  both  as  music  and  as  a  stimulating  and 
exhilarating  factor  in  the  success  of  the  Centennial  Exhibition. 


CHURCH  MUSIC  AS  APPLIED  ART  149 


4.  Music  Applied  to  Religious  Work 

That  artistic  musicians  should  resent  purely  commercial 
purposes,  or  even  the  purpose  of  mere  entertainment,  is 
worthy  of  all  approbation,  as  they  are  lower  motives  than 
the  artistic ;  but  as  moral  and  religious  purposes  have  an 
even  nobler  motive  than  the  artistic,  the  constant  effort 
to  eliminate  or  ignore  them  cannot  be  justified.  It  is  a 
false  pride  that  prevents  art  from  being  the  humble  hand¬ 
maid  of  morals  and  religion. 

This  is  all  the  more  true  that  religion  has  been  the 
mother  of  art,  giving  the  initial  impulse.  Modern  music 
would  not  exist,  but  for  the  fostering  care  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church.  The  religious  purpose  being  the  supreme 
purpose  in  human  life,  it  follows  that  it  has  the  supreme 
claim  upon  any  agency  that  will  be  of  assistance.  While 
other  forms  of  art  are  valuable  in  many  ways,  none  of 
them  are  so  available  at  all  times,  none  can  give  such 
efficient  service  as  music.  In  every  age,  in  every  land, 
among  all  peoples,  it  is  the  most  efficient  vehicle  for  re¬ 
ligious  truth,  the  most  powerful  spell  to  evoke  religious 
feeling  and  sentiment. 

5.  The  Final  Purpose  of  Church  Music  Must 

Be  Understood 

If  the  religious  purpose  is  the  dominating  element  in 
church  music,  it  follows  that  in  its  consideration  there 
must  be  not  only  musical  knowledge  and  skill  and  taste, 
but  also  a  full  comprehension  and  appreciation  of  the 
final  end,  full  sympathy  with  it,  and  a  clear  insight  into 
the  artistic  limitations  thus  introduced. 

The  musical  critic  or  the  well-trained  musician  may 
deserve  to  have  his  opinions  quoted  as  authoritative  in  the 
realm  of  pure  musical  art  and  yet  have  no  standing  what¬ 
ever  as  a  critic  or  adviser  in  church  music,  if  he  has  had 


150 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP  MUSIC 


no  religious  experience,  or  does  not  recognize  the  suprem¬ 
acy  of  the  religious  purpose  over  art,  or  does  not  com¬ 
prehend  the  adaptations  and  limitations  imposed  by  the 
particular  people  to  be  helped  or  by  the  circumstances  in 
which  the  work  is  to  be  done. 

This  limitation  is  usually  overlooked  both  by  the 
musicians  themselves  and  by  the  church  workers  they 
advise,  although  it  is  just  as  true  in  other  lines  of  applied 
art.  The  historian  or  critic  of  artistic  architecture  may 
be  a  very  poor  architect  or  a  misleading  adviser  in  prac¬ 
tical  building.  Ruskin’s  ideas  on  wall-paper  or  on  Christ¬ 
mas  cards  would  probably  have  been  anything  but  use¬ 
ful. 

One  often  hears  or  sees  the  remark,  in  advocacy  of  the 
exclusive  use  of  “  churchly  ”  high  grade  music  in  church 
work,  that  “  one  ought  not  to  offer  unto  God  anything 
less  than  the  best.”  That  is  true,  if  interpreted  rightly; 
but  the  “  best  ”  music  is  not  necessarily  that  which  con¬ 
forms  to  some  abstract  artistic  standard — and  there  are 
many  of  these  standards. 

The  “  best  ”  church  music  is  that  which  is  most 
efficient,  is  that  which  is  best  adapted  to  the  purpose 
sought  and  to  the  people  to  be  affected,  and  so  produces 
the  best  religious  results.  The  judges  here  are  not  art 
critics,  but  practical  church  workers. 

6.  In  Applied  Art  the  Purpose  is  Preeminent 

If  certain  spiritual  results  are  to  be  secured  by  the  use 
of  music  among  a  given  people,  it  follows : 

(a)  That  the  kind  of  music  used  is  not  as  important 
as  securing  the  desired  results. 

( b )  When  definite  religious  and  moral  results  are  to 
be  secured,  personal  idealistic  tastes  must  be  sacrificed  in 
a  cordial  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  purpose  in  view. 


CHURCH  MUSIC  AS  APPLIED  ART  151 


7.  Persons  to  Be  Religiously  Helped  Must  Be 

Considered 

If  the  controlling  factor  in  church  music  is  edification 
and  help,  then  the  mental,  moral,  and  religious  condi¬ 
tion  of  those  to  be  edified  and  helped  becomes  an  essential 
element  in  its  development  and  application. 

The  grade  and  quality  of  music  must  be  adapted  to 
the  grade  of  musical  culture  and  nervous  refinement  of 
the  people  to  be  reached.  It  must  please  them  or  the 
message,  or  the  appeal,  is  already  shut  out  by  prejudice. 
Adaptation  is  the  first  law  of  church  music  success.2 

Moreover,  the  nervous  difference  is  greatly  increased 
by  the  difference  in  the  ideas  associated  with  music  due 
to  mental  culture,  moral  ideals  and  the  like.  In  the 
adaptation  of  music  to  applied  uses  of  any  kind  this 
variable  factor  must  be  taken  into  account. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  phases  of  this  adaptation  is 
the  realization  that  the  work  of  the  church  includes 
“  every  creature,”  and  that  its  music  must  reach  and 
help  not  only  the  cultivated  and  artistic,  but  the  rude  and 
unlettered  as  well.  This  is  all  the  more  peremptory  that 
the  educated  and  refined  classes  have  less  need  of  emo¬ 
tional  expression  and  have  a  wealth  of  other  influences 
and  resources  that  the  masses  lack. 

There  is  an  unconscious  selfishness  in  many  cultivated 
people  who  demand  that  all  music  must  meet  the  require¬ 
ments  of  their  own  natures.  As  Dr.  Curwen  remarks  in 

2  “  Music,  though  reigning  supreme  in  the  human  heart,  is  sub¬ 
ject  to  restrictions  of  time,  place,  and  education.  Unless  all  these 
conditions  are  favourable,  the  sympathy  between  the  maker  of 
the  music  and  the  recipient  or  hearer  is  lost.  .  .  .  When  an 
ordinary  person  speaks  of  the  beauty  and  power  of  music,  he 
refers  not  to  music  in  general,  but  to  that  of  his  own  time, 
place,  and  level  of  education.” — A.  M.  Richardson,  Mus.  Doc.  in 
“  Church  Music.” 


152 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


his  “  Studies  in  Worship  Music/’  regarding  the  music  of 
the  Salvation  Army,  “  How  hard  it  is  for  those  whose 
natures  have  been  refined  by  lifelong  culture  to  enter  into 
the  feelings  of  an  agricultural  peasant  or  a  cadger  of  one 
of  our  larger  towns !  Things  which  hinder  our  devotion 
may  add  to  theirs ;  that  which  shocks  us  may  attract  them 
in  the  truest  sense.”  3 

This  explains  why  Sir  George  Macfarren,  the  distin¬ 
guished  English  conductor  and  composer,  broadened  his 
views  as  he  grew  older.  Early  in  his  career  he  held  the 
traditional  view  that  only  the  ancient  diatonic  style  of 
harmony  should  be  used  in  church  music.  In  confessing 
his  error  he  said :  “  I  reflected  not  that  men  in  church 
were  the  same  human  beings  as  the  same  men  at  home 
or  at  market  or  on  the  wayside.  I  failed  to  consider  that 
folks  thought  in  the  same  language,  felt  from  like  im¬ 
pulses,  acted  from  similar  emotions  whether  they  were  in 
one  place  or  another,  whether  they  interchanged  ideas 
with  their  fellows  or  addressed  themselves  to  the  higher 
Being.  I  overlooked  the  profound  truth  that  to  be  sin¬ 
cere  one  must  be  natural ;  and  thus,  whatever  is  assumed, 
if  of  form  of  speech  or  of  melodious  tones  in  which  to 
declaim  it,  is  unnatural — artificial,  therefore,  and  con¬ 
sequently  false !  ”  Here  is  clearly  expressed  the  reason 
for  the  adaptation  of  church  music  to  the  people  it  is  in¬ 
tended  to  influence. 

8.  The  Value  of  Adaptation 

One  of  the  difficulties  with  musical  idealists  is  that  they 

8  An  English  writer  referring  to  this  matter  of  adaptation  puts 
the  matter  in  a  nutshell.  “  True  science  is  elastic.  It  is  half¬ 
science  which  is  rigid  and  hidebound  and  unable  to  bend  to  cir¬ 
cumstances.  If  we  once  have  grip  of  the  living  principle,  we  can 
venture  freely  on  its  application  to  varying  occasions !  ” 


CHURCH  MUSIC  AS  APPLIED  ART  153 


have  no  sense  of  the  value  of  spontaneity  and  adaptation. 
Music  is  music  to  them,  a  merely  abstract  entity, 
whether  in  dealing  with  a  cathedral  congregation  in  an 
ancient  clerical  community  or  with  the  illiterate  gamins 
of  a  great  city.  But  if  music  is  to  have  power  to  express 
or  create  feeling  it  must  have  regard  to  the  character  of 
the  congregation  whose  feelings  are  to  be  expressed  or 
evoked.  If  it  is  not  spontaneous  and  natural  to  the 
people  using  it,  it  becomes  forced,  perfunctory,  without 
responsiveness  or  power. 

If  people  are  rude  and  unlettered,  it  is  folly  to  in¬ 
troduce  heavy  unrhythmical  tunes,  just  as  it  would  be 
folly  to  use  light  music  of  pronounced  rhythms  among 
highly  cultivated  worshippers;  indeed,  of  the  two  there 
is  less  danger  in  the  latter,  for  genuine  music  of  a 
rhythmical  character  affects  certain  fundamental  feelings 
of  even  the  most  cultivated  persons  in  spite  of  their  so¬ 
phisticated  judgment.  Becoming  all  things  to  all  men  in 
order  to  save  some,  includes  this  adaptation  to  the  musical 
need  and  capacity  not  only  of  the  young,  but  of  the  less 
cultivated  older  people,  and  justifies  this  position. 


9.  Abstract  Standards  Not  Applicable  to 

Church  Music 

Furthermore  if  church  music  is  applied,  not  ideal,  art, 
and  is  shaped  and  moulded  by  extremely  varied  personal 
exigencies  and  resources,  then  it  gives  little  opportunity 
for  the  rigid  application  of  abstract  standards  of  music. 
Under  given  circumstances,  the  worst  thing  to  be  done 
may  be  the  use  of  the  “  best  ”  music.  The  mechanical 
adoption  of  a  fixed  abstract  standard  of  music,  and  the 
rather  clamorous  insistence  upon  its  inflexible  application 
everywhere  and  among  all  classes  of  people,  have  been  a 


154 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


fertile  cause  of  religiously  ineffective  church  music  in 
this  country  and  elsewhere. 

The  mechanical  mind  dearly  loves  a  rule  or  a  formula. 
Education,  with  its  tendencies  to  abstraction  and  for¬ 
mulation,  only  hardens  this  mental  trait  into  a  habit.  A 
person  conscious  of  ignorance  of  the  principles  involved 
always  is  happiest  when  he  has  a  definite  precept  to  obey. 
But  the  rigid  application  of  formulae  in  the  examination 
of  musical  compositions  to  be  used  in  the  church  work, 
or  of  fixed  rules  to  be  obeyed  in  its  rendition,  prevents 
the  pliability  and  adaptability  demanded  by  the  extraor¬ 
dinary  variations  of  culture,  ability  and  resources  in  our 
churches,  if  the  real  object  of  church  music  is  to  be 
attained. 


io.  Room  for  Divergent  Opinions 

It  will  be  seen  at  a  glance  what  room  this  two-sided 
nature  of  sacred  music  gives  for  difference  of  opinion 
and  attitude.  Vary  the  relative  emphasis  placed  upon 
musical  art  and  upon  religious  or  moral  purpose  and  the 
resultant  views  change  in  direct  proportion.  The  pro¬ 
fessional  musician  employed  by  the  church  often  practi¬ 
cally  ignores  the  religious  ends  that  are  sought,  while  the 
inartistic,  unmusical  minister  is  blind  to  the  value  of 
artistic  considerations  in  his  narrow  eagerness  for  re¬ 
ligious  results.  Between  these  extremes  lies  a  great 
variety  of  conflicting  ideas.  Add  the  factor  of  blind  de¬ 
votion  to  tradition  and  historical  precedent  and  you  have 
the  prevailing  chaos  and  welter  of  views  and  opinions. 

The  necessity  of  a  clear  understanding  of  the  relative 
importance  of  the  ideal  and  the  practical  sides  of  the 
subject  is  manifest.  Without  entering  into  a  further  dis¬ 
cussion  of  the  relative  weight  of  these  two  factors,  let  us 
assume  in  the  development  of  our  subject  that  the  re- 


CHURCH  MUSIC  AS  APPLIED  ART  155 


ligious  purpose  is  supreme,  but  that  the  artistic  element 
yields  its  claim  for  consideration  only  when  hard  neces¬ 
sity  marks  its  limits. 

So  far  from  these  two  elements  being  always  antago¬ 
nistic,  church  music  is  at  its  best  when  the  susceptibility 
of  the  nervous  systems  is  so  great  that  they  cooperate 
most  intimately.  Art  gives  beauty  and  attractiveness  to 
religion  and  religion  gives  content  and  genuineness  to  the 
art.  Lot  and  Abraham  are  not  at  variance;  the  conten¬ 
tion  arises  between  their  servants. 

ii.  Music  Should  Express  All  Religious  Emotions 

The  range  of  feeling  expressed  by  music  is  very  wide, 
from  a  mere  sense  of  physical  well-being  and  vital  force 
to  the  noblest  joyous  or  despairing  emotion.  It  may 
appeal  in  rhythm  only  to  the  motor  nervous  system,  it 
may  expressively  accompany  a  mere  statement  of  facts 
as  in  arithmetical  or  geographical  songs,  or  mere  narra¬ 
tive  as  in  the  English  ballad,  or  it  may  swell  into  a  very 
storm  of  passion  as  in  the  Venusberg  scene  in  “  Tann- 
hauser  ” ;  but  it  is  still  music  and  produces  its  nervous 
results. 

If  music  expresses  feeling  then  sacred  music  must  ex¬ 
press  sacred  feeling.  Sacred  feelings  must  have  relation 
to  one’s  apprehension  of  God  and  His  divine  attributes, 
to  our  praise  and  adoration  of  His  infinite  perfections,  to 
our  personal  relations  towards  Him  in  love  and  obedience. 
When  these  sacred  feelings  are  purely  personal  and  in¬ 
dividualistic,  their  expression  has  no  place  in  the  public 
congregation,  where  only  emotions  that  are  common  to 
all  should  find  a  place.  With  this  limitation  all  religious 
emotions  may  and  should  find  conscious  voice. 

It  should  be  emphasized  that  all  religious  emotions 
should  find  expression  in  church  music.  It  is  often 


156 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


definitely  asserted,  or  unconsciously  assumed,  that  all 
music  used  in  religious  work  must  be  solemn  and  stately 
and  must  be  restricted  to  praise  and  prayer.  That  praise 
and  prayer  should  constitute  a  large  part  of  public  wor¬ 
ship  should  be  emphasized  again  and  again;  but  to  shut 
out  the  musical  expression  of  all  other  religious  emotions 
were  to  deprive  the  church  of  a  large  part  of  its  natural 
and  divine  heritage.4  Many  of  these  feelings  are  not 
sublime  or  majestic  and  solemn  music  does  not  fitly  ex¬ 
press  them.  Many  of  them  actually  demand  music  full 
of  life  and  vigour,  i.  e.,  rhythmical  music. 

( a )  Worshipful  Emotion  Quite  Varied  in  Character. 
The  assumption  that  our  religious  music  must  always  be 
characterized  by  solemn  dignity  begs  the  whole  question. 
It  proves  that  the  objector  to  pronouncedly  rhythmical 
forms  has  a  limited  idea  of  the  range  of  religious  feeling, 
recognizing  only  as  a  truly  religious  emotion  the  soul’s 
awful  sense  of  an  omniscient,  omnipresent,  unsearchable 
Being,  throned  in  the  heavens.  That  is  very  noble  as  far 
as  it  goes,  but  a  pantheist,  a  deist,  a  Mohammedan,  nay, 
even  an  atheist  with  a  solemn  realization  of  all-prevailing, 
all-controlling  natural  law,  can  claim  a  share  in  this  vague 
devotion. 

But  the  Christian  religion  furnishes  a  wider  range  of 
emotion  to  be  expressed.  Its  reverence  is  not  an  oppres¬ 
sive  pall,  but  cheerful  worship  and  rapturous  adoration, 
glad  thanksgiving  and  loyal  consecration.  Furthermore, 
when  the  amazing  condescension  of  our  God  lifts  us  out 
of  the  realm  of  His  material  creation  into  companionship 
and  even  sonship,  what  would  have  been  otherwise  the 
impertinence  of  familiarity, — the  love  and  devotion,  the 

4  Dr.  Richardson  in  “  Church  Music  ”  is  therefore  unduly  limit¬ 
ing  the  scope  of  musical  help  in  church  work  when  he  asserts  that 
“  The  raison  d’etre  of  church  music  is  worship  and  worship  only.” 


CHURCH  MUSIC  AS  APPLIED  ART  157 


childlike  trust,  the  loyal  service,  the  fervent  attitude, — - 
in  a  word,  the  tender  intimacy, — becomes  a  privilege  and 
a  right.  These  Godward  emotions  can  and  ought  to  be 
solemn  and  reverent  and  it  would  be  very  difficult  to  find 
any  current  music  as  it  is  actually  sung, — not  as  it  may  be 
irreverently  perverted — which  approaches  God  in  the  flip¬ 
pant  manner  so  frequently  alleged. 

( b )  Religions  Emotions  Growing  Out  of  Human  Rela¬ 
tions.  But  the  devout  soul  has  its  relation  to  the  moral 
world  about  it,  to  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  on  earth,  to 
its  fellow  saints,  to  the  immortal  souls,  who  have  not  yet 
won  the  immortal  hope.  Here  is  a  wide  scope  of  emotion 
that  has  an  equal  right  to  musical  expression.  Love  for 
truth  and  righteousness,  interest  in  the  advancing  king¬ 
dom  of  Christ,  fellowship  with  the  saints  on  earth,  desire 
for  the  salvation  of  those  outside  the  fold, — all  inspire 
the  sanctified  heart  to  song  not  directed  towards  God,  but 
towards  the  hearts  and  lives  of  fellow  beings. 

The  impulse  to  help,  to  inspire,  to  persuade,  to  urge, 
finds  instinctive  expression  in  song  and  compels  its  pur¬ 
poseful  use  for  practical  and  definite  ends.  The  solemn 
dignity  of  a  chorale  does  not  serve  this  purpose,  for  these 
are  not  always  exalted  experiences.  In  so  far  as  these  im¬ 
pulses  are  joyous  and  stirring,  rhythm  is  their  natural  ex¬ 
pression.  The  march  movement,  which  can  be  so  effec¬ 
tively  used  to  express  alike  exalted  triumphal  joy  and  the 
profoundest  grief  for  the  dead,  is  entirely  in  place  in 
giving  voice  to  some  of  these  religious  feelings,  and  even 
movements  which  have  in  them  the  grace  and  joyousness 
of  triple  time,  but  wanting  its  sensuousness,  may  occa¬ 
sionally  have  their  place. 

Most  persons  objecting  to  rhythmical  music  of  this 
class  do  not  understand  in  what  spirit  or  tempo  it  is  to  be 
sung.  If  they  do,  they  are  guilty  of  dishonourablv  mis- 


158 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


representing  and  caricaturing  it  to  make  their  point.  A 
young  musician  spoke  on  church  music  in  a  Sunday- 
school  convention  and  took  occasion  to  refer  to  the  aver¬ 
age  gospel  song  as  “  rot  ”  !  To  illustrate  and  enforce  his 
point  he  played  Sankey’s  most  cheaply  rhythmical  song, 
“  When  the  Mists  have  Rolled  Away/’  excessively  rapidly 
and  accentuated  the  rhythm  by  a  two-step  accompaniment 
in  his  left  hand,  producing  the  merest  caricature  of  the 
music.  When  the  director  of  the  music  announced  that 
same  song  at  the  conclusion  of  the  address  and  had  the 
people  sing  it  as  it  was  intended  to  be  sung,  no  further 
reply  to  the  young  musician’s  attack  was  necessary.5 
If  the  young  man  had  been  attending  Young  People’s 
meeting  instead  of  playing  light  two-step  music  that  made 
dotted  eighths  and  sixteenths  suggest  frivolous  music, 
he  would  not  have  misrepresented  Sankey’s  song.  It 
illustrates  well  the  fact  that  if  these  rhythmical  move¬ 
ments,  as  used  in  popular  sacred  music,  have  degrading 
associations,  the  perceiving  mind  has  passed  through  the 
degrading  place  where  they  are  found. 

When  a  man  has  once  learned  the  height  and  breadth 
of  a  complete  and  symmetrical  religious  experience,  and 
has  studied  the  needs  of  the  world  and  the  best  methods 
of  supplying  them,  no  matter  how  intellectual  he  may  be, 
or  how  refined  and  just  his  taste,  he  will  accept  the  cur¬ 
rent  rhythmical  religious  music  in  its  best  manifestations 
as  having  great  value  for  spiritual  and  religious  uses. 
He  may  seek  to  prevent  the  use  of  the  grosser  forms  it 

“An  old  Shropshire  clerk,  who  played  by  ear  only  sacred  music 
on  his  violin,  was  asked  by  some  young  ladies  to  play  at  a  dance 
they  were  planning.  “  I  canna  do  it,”  he  said,  “  but  I’ll  play 
‘  The  Ould  Hunderth  ’  quick,  if  that’ll  do.”  It  could  have  been 
made  to  do ;  for  most  people  distinguish  between  sacred  and 
secular  music  chiefly  by  the  tempo  and  rhythm. 


CHUBCH  MUSIC  AS  APPLIED  ART  159 


occasionally  takes,  but  will  not  discourage  by  narrow¬ 
minded  criticism  the  faithful  and  successful  workers  who 
conscientiously,  with  great  ability,  and  often  with  a  great 
sacrifice  of  personal  musical  tastes,  are  seeking  to  pro¬ 
mote  the  cause  of  Christ. 

(c)  Church  Music  a  Vehicle  of  Instruction.  But 
sacred  music  is  not  only  the  expression  of  religious  feel¬ 
ings  and  a  means  of  stimulating,  reproducing  and  creat¬ 
ing  them,  but  also  a  vehicle  for  imparting  instruction, 
admonition,  or  encouragement.  “  Onward,  Christian 
Soldiers/'  “  Scatter  Sunshine,"  “  Yield  not  to  Tempta¬ 
tion,"  are  cases  in  point,  and  the  use  of  agreeable  and  ex¬ 
pressive  rhythm  in  setting  them  to  music  is  entirely  con¬ 
gruous  and  befitting. 

But  most  of  these  rhythmical  sacred  songs  were 
originally  written  for  children  and  young  people,  who 
respond  instinctively  to  rhythmical  measures.  Even  if 
the  use  of  rhythm  in  sacred  song  had  no  theoretical  basis 
justifying  it,  the  practical  need  of  adapting  the  music 
used  to  the  capacity  of  these  classes  would  be  a  sufficient 
reason  for  setting  aside  all  these  conventional  and  ultra- 
fastidious  considerations. 

12.  Conclusions 

The  wise  minister,  with  his  eye  on  the  tangible  results 
found  in  the  spiritual  edification  of  believers  or  in  the 
transformation  of  the  life  and  character  of  unsaved  per¬ 
sons  by  the  power  of  the  gospel,  will  study  musical  effects 
with  a  direct  reference  to  the  needs  of  his  own  particular 
congregation.  He  will  not  allow  his  artistic  conscience 
to  stifle  his  spiritual  conscience,  nor  let  the  pride  of  art 
displace  his  sense  of  responsibility  for  souls.  He  will 
not  ask,  is  this  song  up  to  the  most  recent  Anglican  stand¬ 
ards,  but  will  it  move  the  people?  He  will  not  insist 


160 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


that  in  every  anthem  every  beat  must  be  a  separate  chord, 
but  judge  whether  it  is  calculated  to  please  and  then  in¬ 
spire,  comfort,  or  even  instruct,  his  congregation. 

This  does  not  mean  that  he  shall  have  confused  or 
vitiated  artistic  standards.  Let  him  study  and  discrimi¬ 
nate  accurately  as  to  the  artistic  value  of  the  music  he 
uses,  but  only  be  sure  that  in  practical  work  those 
artistic  conclusions  take  a  subordinate  place. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  State  the  difference  between  pure  art  and  applied  art. 

2.  When  is  music  pure  art? 

3.  What  makes  music  an  applied  art? 

4.  Why  have  religious  workers  a  right  to  use  music  as  a 
means? 

5.  Why  are  professional  musicians  not  always  the  best  advis¬ 
ers  regarding  church  music? 

6.  What  is  the  “best”  music? 

7.  What  factor  in  church  music  is  most  important? 

8.  What  other  factor  needs  careful  consideration? 

9.  Is  church  music  only  intended  for  cultivated  persons  in  the 
congregation?  If  not,  what  follows? 

10.  Why  is  careful  adaptation  to  the  character  of  the  con¬ 
gregation  needful? 

11.  Are  high  artistic  standards  of  supreme  importance? 

12.  Why  are  inflexible  rules  fatal  to  efficiency? 

13.  Explain  why  such  divergent  opinions  are  current  regarding 
church  music? 

14.  Should  all  church  music  be  exclusively  worshipful? 

15.  Should  worshipful  music  always  be  solemn  and  heavy? 

16.  What  other  emotions  than  those  rising  out  of  a  conscious¬ 
ness  of  God  should  find  expression? 

17.  What  is  the  pedagogical  value  of  church  music? 

18.  What  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter? 


XII 


HOW  CHURCH  MUSIC  ASSISTS 

After  the  analysis  of  the  psychological  factors  in 
music  found  in  preceding  chapters,  it  will  now  be  possible 
to  explicate  the  specific  ways  in  which  music  assists  in 
church  music. 

i.  Music  Applied  in  Five  Religious  Lines 

The  ordinary  applied  uses  of  music  are  very  simple 
compared  with  the  complexity  of  religious  purposes,  for 
they  call  chiefly  for  stimulation. 

The  varied  application  of  music  to  church  work  may 
be  classified  as  follows: 

(a)  Expressing  and  inspiring  an  attitude  of  worship 
in  all  its  varied  phases  and  forms. 

( b )  Development  of  religious  life  by  emotional  appeal, 
enforcing  and  stimulating  efforts  made  to  deepen  spiritual 
experience. 

( c )  Stimulating,  inspiring,  vitalizing  exhortations  and 
impulses  for  altruistic  service. 

( d )  Rendering  religious  instruction  attractive, — what 
may  be  called  its  pedagogical  use. 

( e )  Affecting  the  feelings  and  wills  of  unregenerate 
persons, — its  evangelistic  use. 

2.  Music  Useful  in  Every  Phase  of  Church  Work 

(a)  In  the  stated  service  it  calms  the  nerves,  preparing 
them  for  an  attitude  of  worship,  which  should  be  the  es¬ 
sential  characteristic  of  such  a  service.  By  its  majestic 
strains  it  prepares  the  way  for  noble  thoughts  and  pro- 

161 


162 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OP  MUSIC 


found  emotions.  It  intensifies  worshipful  feelings  and 
satisfies  the  mind  by  giving  expression  to  them.  The 
music  for  such  a  service  should  be  dignified,  noble,  im¬ 
pressive,  but  with  due  regard  for  the  nervous  refinement 
and  susceptibility,  or  lack  of  it,  of  the  people  engaged 
in  the  service. 

( b )  In  semi-public  devotional  services,  such  as  prayer- 
meetings,  we  have  an  entirely  different  situation  from 
that  of  a  stately  public  service.  Elevation  and  majesty 
are  not  particularly  called  for.  The  tender  emotions  here 
find  expression.  The  approach  to  God  is  individualistic, 
not  collective.  Simplicity  and  tenderness  are  to  char¬ 
acterize  the  singing. 

(c)  In  public  services  essentially  devoted,  not  to  wor¬ 
ship,  but  to  rousing  active  interest  in  some  special  church 
work,  or  in  some  line  of  general  religious  activity,  stimu¬ 
lating,  exhilarating  music  is  wanted  to  stir  up  the  physical 
enthusiasm,  that  is,  excite  nerves  ready  to  respond  to  the 
inspiration  of  the  addresses  and  appeals  to  be  made  in  be¬ 
half  of  the  announced  topic. 

( d )  Then  there  is  the  didactic  use  of  music.  The 
simply  exhilarating  nervous  effect  of  music  is  here 
brought  into  play  to  stimulate  the  perceptive  faculties  and 
the  memory.  Under  practically  the  same  head  come 
hortative  songs  like  the  “  Marseillaise  ”  and  “  Stand  up. 
Stand  up  for  Jesus.” 

( e )  As  all  the  emotions  are  more  or  less  directly  as¬ 
sociated  with  and  subordinate  to  religion,  there  is  place 
for  music  expressing  these  emotions  in  their  religious 
relations.  Under  this  head  fall  the  quasi-sentimental 
songs  which  are  often  criticized  when  used  in  religious 
services.  They  have  the  same  psychological  justifica¬ 
tion  as  the  preacher’s  appeal  to  these  sentiments  or 
emotions. 


HOW  CHUECH  MUSIC  ASSISTS 


163 


3.  The  Physical  Effect  of  Religious  Music 

As  has  already  been  brought  out  at  length,  the  first 
appeal  of  music  is  to  the  physical  being.  According  to 
its  character,  it  exhilarates  and  excites,  or  calms  and  de¬ 
presses.  This  physical  effect  stimulates  the  mental 
action,  increases  the  psychical  responsiveness  and  creates 
what  might  be  called  physical  interest.  It  is,  therefore, 
not  to  be  despised,  but  to  be  recognized  as  having  funda¬ 
mental  value  and  as  demanding  earnest  cultivation.  To 
depreciate  and  scoff  at  it  is  to  convict  one’s  self  of  sheer 
ignorance  of  the  workings  of  the  human  mind. 

With  some  kind  of  gatherings,  such  as  shop  meetings, 
street  meetings,  missions  and  rural  services,  it  is  about 
all  that  at  first  can  be  done  with  music.  But  even  this 
is  well  worth  the  doing  preparatory  to  later  results.  In 
mission  Sunday-schools,  in  popular  revival  campaigns,  in 
great  miscellaneous  popular  religious  conventions  and 
conferences,  this  merely  physical  and  psychical  effect 
will  be  indispensable. 

The  “  Glory  Song  ”  and  “  Brighten  the  Corner  ”  have 
probably  succeeded,  and  have  been  valuable  in  thousands 
of  great  meetings,  by  virtue  of  their  producing  this 
nervous  result,  rather  than  by  any  direct  spiritual  in¬ 
fluence  they  have  exerted. 

4.  The  Pleasure  Produced  by  Religious  Music 

That  music  gives  pleasure  every  one  recognizes.  The 
mere  physical  sensation  is  delightful.  The  symmetry 
and  unity  of  the  diverse  elements  of  melody,  harmony, 
and  rhythm  interest  the  intellectual  faculties.  The  vague 
recalling  of  emotion  felt  in  the  indefinite  past  is  still 
another  element  of  pleasure. 

This  appeal  to  the  fundamental  desire  for  pleasure 
found  in  the  human  soul  attracts  many  persons  to  the 


164 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


service,  whether  it  be  made  by  the  beating  of  a  drum  on 
the  open  streets  by  a  squad  of  the  Salvation  Army,  or  by 
the  playing  of  a  skillful  organist  and  the  singing  of  an 
artistic  quartet  in  a  wealthy  church.  This  is  not  a  high 
office  for  sacred  music  to  perform,  but  it  is  entirely 
legitimate,  if  it  is  merely  incidental,  and  if  the  motive 
for  securing  an  attendance  is  the  proper  one. 

5.  Music  Predisposes  the  Mind  to  Accept  Message 

The  pleasure  in  the  hearing  of  the  music  has  another 
valuable  result;  it  predisposes  the  mind  of  the  listener  to 
consider  favourably  and  to  accept  readily  the  truth  and 
the  general  religious  impressions  the  other  exercises  of 
the  service  are  intended  to  convey.  There  is  more 
hospitality  of  mind,  more  accessibility  to  the  spiritual 
message. 

Politicians  and  financial  promoters  fully  understand 
and  exploit  the  favourable  effects  of  such  an  introduction 
to  their  efforts  to  convince  and  win.  The  combined 
musical  and  gustatory  pleasures  of  a  banquet  precede  the 
speeches  and  addresses  that  give  the  keynote  to  an  im¬ 
pending  campaign  or  explain  the  merits  of  a  proposed 
financial  venture. 

6.  Organizing  Effect  of  Music 

If  there  were  no  other  justification  of  the  organ  prelude 
and  the  opening  anthem,  its  influence  as  mere  music  in 
organizing  the  crowd  of  individuals  into  a  psychical 
unity  were  enough.  The  mere  fact  that  they  are  listen¬ 
ing  to  the  same  music,  are  having  a  common  experience, 
creates  a  composite  personality  that  becomes  an  induc¬ 
tion  coil  intensifying  the  current  of  feeling  that  is  to  flow 
to  the  individual  listener. 

The  sooner  this  impression  common  to  all  is  made  and 
the  deeper  it  is  made,  the  more  powerful  is  the  common 


HOW  CHUECH  MUSIC  ASSISTS 


165 


and  the  individual  responsiveness.  The  more  powerful 
the  opening  impression, — unless  it  comes  as  a  violent 
shock, — the  more  closely  are  the  bonds  of  unity  knit. 

Instrumental  music  can  do  this.  Vocal  music  is 
stronger,  because  it  supplies  the  common  emotional  im¬ 
pression  growing  out  of  its  text.  Congregational  singing 
is  still  more  effective,  because  it  adds  the  sympathy  of 
cooperation  and  the  physical  stimulus  to  the  nerves  of 
deeper  and  more  rapid  breathing  and  of  stronger  heart 
action  caused  by  singing. 

This  is  an  absolutely  legitimate  application  of  music, 
is  psychologically  justified  as  scientific,  and  of  immense 
value  in  actual  practical  work.  The  opening  music, 
therefore,  is  not  the  negligible  matter  it  is  usually  con¬ 
sidered  to  be.  This  is  simply  one  of  the  many  phases  of 
“  the  psychology  of  the  mob  ”  which  need  to  be  carefully 
studied  by  the  public  worker. 

7.  The  Process  of  Music's  Emotional  Preparation 

Music  may  be  used  to  set  in  motion  and  so  make  re¬ 
sponsive  the  tract  of  the  sensibilities  in  which  lie  the 
particular  emotions  the  following  address  is  intended  to 
arouse.  The  mind  is  impressed  with  the  nervous  effect 
produced  by  the  music  and  responds  with  a  vague,  con¬ 
tentless  emotion  that  demands  some  definite  tangible 
cause.  If  it  is  not  furnished,  the  mind  will  go  off  into 
fancies  and  dreams  and  reminiscences,  seeking  for  some 
object,  thought,  or  experience  justifying  the  nervous  im¬ 
pressions  and  the  induced  emotion.  If  the  mind  in  this 
eager  search  meets  the  appropriate  mental  impression  in 
the  succeeding  exercise  or  address,  the  welcome  is  hearty 
and  unreserved.  There  is  eager  attention  and  complete 
responsiveness  of  mind. 

An  aggressively  rhythmical  prelude  prepares  the  way 


166 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


for  a  stirring  hymn  of  decision,  the  effect  of  both  is 
heightened  by  an  anthem  full  of  life  and  vigour.  By  this 
time  the  nerves  of  the  hearers  have  been  exhilarated,  his 
feelings  of  joy,  courage,  and  aggressiveness  have  been 
vaguely  aroused  and  are  clamouring  for  the  fitting  dis¬ 
course  on  moral  reform,  church  work  or  missionary  duty 
which  will  justify  their  activity.  The  recognition  of  the 
fitting  cause  of  emotion  so  fills  with  thought  and  purpose 
what  has  been  a  mere  indeterminate  feeling,  that  it  trans¬ 
forms  it  into  an  intelligent  emotion  having  power  over 
conscience  and  will.  It  remains  for  the  speaker  to  fan 
the  fire  already  burning  in  the  soul,  a  vastly  easier  task 
than  to  start  it. 

8.  Music  as  an  Expression  and  Intensifier  of 

Emotion 

A  strong,  convincing  sermon  makes  a  deep  impression 
upon  the  emotions  of  the  hearer;  those  emotions  in  turn 
affect  the  nervous  system.  Both  the  nervous  impression 
and  the  emotion  urgently  demand  an  articulate  expres¬ 
sion  in  some  way.  When  opportunity  is  given  by  the 
playing  of  expressive  music,  by  a  solo,  or  an  anthem  by 
the  choir,  or  better  yet,  by  an  appropriate  hymn  sung  by 
the  hearers  themselves,  the  emotional  result  of  the  sermon 
is  greatly  increased  and  intensified. 

Indeed,  where  the  address  has  appealed  chiefly  to  the 
intellect,  and  apparently  has  stirred  the  emotions  but 
slightly,  the  use  of  proper  music  will  often  bring  the 
latent  emotion  up  into  consciousness  and  increase  it 
greatly.  This  emotionalizing  of  an  abstract  discourse, 
lacking  in  appeal  to  the  feelings,  is  one  of  the  most  ef¬ 
fective  offices  of  music. 

9.  The  Progress  of  Musical  Effect  in  a  Service 

The  manner  in  which  music  produces  results  prepara- 


HOW  CHURCH  MUSIC  ASSISTS 


167 


tory  to  the  sermon,  and  its  intensification  of  the  sermon's 
effect,  has  been  dwelt  upon.  But  that  is  a  rather  narrow 
view  of  the  service.  Let  us  study  the  manner  in  which 
music  affects  what  is  to  be  an  impressive  and  worshipful 
service. 

Worship  is  the  recognition  of  the  infinite  greatness  and 
perfection  of  the  Divine  Being,  an  emotion  of  awe  and 
reverence,  a  deliberate  act  of  the  will  subordinating  itself 
utterly  to  the  divine  will.  In  a  mind  given  to  abstract 
conceptions  free  from  emotional  realization,  there  is 
danger  that  so  great  an  idea  shall  have  no  emotional 
response.  Music  may  stimulate  this  flagging  emotion 
and  hence  we  open  our  service  with  a  slow,  massive  pre¬ 
lude  that  shall  calm  and  depress  the  nerves  and  so  pre¬ 
pare  the  mind  for  the  feeling  of  awe. 

But  this  vague,  oppressive  sensation  is  not  worship. 
Richard  Storrs  Willis  clearly  develops  this  thought:  “A 
solemn  feeling  is  not  worship.  Such  a  feeling  is  the 
result  of  architectural  or  artistic  causes.  A  person,  for 
instance,  has  entered  a  cathedral;  he  is  awed  by  the 
grandeur  and  solemn  hush  of  the  place;  he  yields  to  an 
irresistible  feeling  of  solemnity  and  afterwards  goes  away 
and  feels,  perhaps,  as  though  he  had  worshipped.  Not 
so.  He  has  merely  indulged  in  what  might  be  called 
architectural  awe.  Such  a  feeling  is  a  legitimate  effect 
of  elevated  art.  The  place  and  the  supreme  object  of 
worship  lie  higher  than  mere  architecture,  or  music,  or 
painting,  artistically  enjoyed,  can  bear  the  soul.  For  in 
the  enjoyment  of  natural  scenery,  we  are  recipients;  the 
mind,  therefore,  is  in  a  passive  state.  Whereas,  in  wor¬ 
ship,  the  mind  is  in  an  active  state.” 

Dr.  Dickinson  of  Oberlin  in  his  very  admirable  book, 
“  The  History  of  Music  in  the  Western  Church,”  recog¬ 
nizes  the  unmoral  and  applied  character  of  church  music 


168 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


and  states  it  very  clearly :  “  Music,  even  the  noblest  and 
purest,  is  not  always  or  necessarily  an  aid  to  devotion, 
and  there  may  even  be  snares  in  what  seems  at  first  a 
devoted  ally.  The  analogy  that  exists  between  religious 
emotion  and  musical  rapture  is,  after  all,  only  an  analogy; 
aesthetic  delight,  although  it  be  the  most  refined,  is  not 
worship;  the  melting  tenderness  that  often  follows  a 
sublime  instrumental  or  choral  strain  is  not  contrition. 
Those  who  speak  of  all  good  music  as  religious  do  not 
understand  the  meaning  of  the  terms  they  use.  For 
devotion  is  not  a  mere  vague  feeling  of  longing  or  trans¬ 
port/' 

At  the  close  of  a  majestic  prelude,  therefore,  the  con¬ 
gregation  is  not  in  a  worshipful  attitude ;  it  is  simply  op¬ 
pressed  with  a  vague  feeling  analogous  to  awe.  His  emo¬ 
tions  may  be  said  to  be  running  in  neutral.  Only 
in  so  far  as  the  time  and  place  suggest  the  idea  of  the 
Divine  Being,  may  there  be  the  beginnings  of  a  genuine 
awe  and  reverence. 

As  the  organist  now  plays  over  “  Old  Hundredth  ”  as 
a  prelude  to  the  singing  of  the  doxology,  the  words  are 
remembered  and  the  idea  of  God  and  of  the  homage  due 
Him  come  in  to  give  definite  character  to  what  has  been 
an  indefinite,  passive  sensation,  and  begins  its  transforma¬ 
tion  into  genuine  awe  and  reverence. 

As  the  hearer  joins  with  the  rest  in  the  praise  and 
adoration,  his  will  gives  its  assent  to  the  exercise  and  at 
last  he  is  actually  worshipping.  If  the  following  invoca¬ 
tion  is  sincerely  devout  and  expresses  fitly  the  hearer's 
feeling  and  purpose,  it  deepens  the  emotions  already  exist¬ 
ing  in  the  heart. 

According  to  the  varying  personal  equation,  the  hearer 
is  now  prepared  for  the  hymn  that  follows.  It  may  be 
the  majestic  verses  of  Watts: 


HOW  CHURCH  MUSIC  ASSISTS 


169 


“  Before  Jehovah’s  awful  throne. 

Ye  nations,  bow  with  sacred  joy; 

Know  that  the  Lord  is  God  alone, 

He  can  create,  and  He  destroy.” 

Here  the  feelings  of  majesty  and  awe,  prepared  for  by 
the  stately  prelude,  brought  into  consciousness  by  the 
doxology,  deepened  by  the  invocation,  find  stimulation  in 
the  noble  character  of  the  words  of  the  hymn,  in  the 
elevation  of  the  music,  in  the  personal  participation  in  the 
singing,  and  especially  in  the  fact  of  their  clear  expres¬ 
sion. 

An  appropriate  psalm  of  praise  read  by  the  pastor,  or 
read  responsively,  will  further  accentuate  the  devout  feel¬ 
ing  of  the  people  and  so  prepare  the  way  for  the  culmi¬ 
nation  of  the  worship  in  the  pastor’s  prayer.  The  music 
has  furnished  only  the  nervous  preparation  and  the 
physical  emotion,  if  it  may  be  so  phrased,  while  the 
words  of  the  doxology,  the  invocation,  the  hymn,  the 
Scripture  reading  and  the  prayer  supply  the  intellectual 
emotion. 

The  music  has  prepared  the  way  for  the  other  exercises 
and  they  in  turn  have  intensified  the  effect  of  the  music. 
It  would  be  interesting,  it  even  might  be  profitable,  to 
attempt  a  series  of  studies  in  the  nervous  and  emotional 
development  of  a  service.  The  student  is  advised  to 
work  them  out  for  himself  on  the  basis  of  the  resources 
he  has  at  hand. 

io.  Substituting  Related  Emotioi 

This  vagueness  of  the  nervous  impression  and  its  in¬ 
duced  movement  of  the  sensibilities  can  be  made  very 
useful  in  the  substitution  of  related  emotions.  A  man’s 
love  to  his  mother  and  to  his  Maker  are  very  closely 


170 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


related  in  character.  The  nervous  impression  is  practi¬ 
cally  the  same,  although  the  latter  may  have  (depending 
on  the  thoughtfulness  of  the  subject)  a  greater  degree  of 
depression,  due  to  the  greater  awe  involved. 

If  we  wish  to  develop  love  for  the  Divine  Being  in  an 
unconverted  person,  we  begin  by  appealing  to  his  filial 
affection.  Tender  and  soothing  music  may  precede  the 
calling  up  of  childish  reminiscences,  or  the  touching 
anecdote.  Or  a  solo,  such  as  “  My  Mother’s  Prayer,”  or 
“Tell  Mother  I’ll  be  There,”  in  which  music  cooperates 
with  the  words  in  making  a  nervous  and  an  emotional  im¬ 
pression,  will  be  still  more  effective. 

The  emotion  and  the  nervous  response  to  this  funda¬ 
mental  social  sensibility  having  been  effective,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  substitute  in  the  hearer’s  mind  the  idea  of  God 
and  His  tender  providence  for  the  idea  of  the  mother  and 
her  loving  administry.  It  is  practically  the  same  emotion, 
the  same  nervous  key;  there  is  the  utmost  harmony  be¬ 
tween  them,  and  the  substituted  idea  is  given  the  full 
benefit  of  the  original  appeal. 

An  evangelistic  minister  gives  the  following  experience 
which  is  illustrative  of  this  substitution  of  emotions :  “  I 
once  sang  in  an  evangelistic  service  Bliss’  ‘  I  Know  Not 
What  Awaits  Me,’  prefacing  it  with  the  story  of  the 
composer’s  tragic  death  at  Ashtabula,  and  emphasizing 
the  uncertainty  of  life.  This  was,  of  course,  a  slightly 
veiled  but  none  the  less  effective  appeal  to  the  funda¬ 
mental  feeling  of  the  fear  of  death.  As  I  sang  I  noticed 
manifestations  of  deep  feeling  on  the  face  of  a  young 
man  whose,  wife  had  been  earnestly  praying  for  him  with¬ 
out  apparently  any  results,  and  who  had  just  come  home 
that  day  from  the  East,  crossing  the  high  bridge  over  the 
Ohio  at  Bellaire  on  a  train.  After  his  conversion, 
which  occurred  before  the  service  closed,  he  told  me,  ‘As 


HOW  CHURCH  MUSIC  ASSISTS 


171 


you  sang  I  recalled  my  feelings  as  I  crossed  the  bridge 
over  the  Ohio,  and  I  thought,  what  if  it  had  gone  down 
with  me  as  the  Ashtabula  bridge  did  with  Bliss  ?  ’  ” 

The  song  simply  transferred  the  sympathy  that  had 
been  roused  in  him  for  Bliss  to  himself.  The  fundamental 
personal  and  social  feelings  may  thus  be  spiritualized  in 
endlessly  varied  ways.  This  process  is  particularly  effec¬ 
tive  in  dealing  with  the  unsaved,  but  is  just  as  available 
in  work  among  believers. 

ii.  Conclusion 

When  once  the  fact  is  clearly  recognized,  that  musical 
vibrations  directly  produce  corresponding  nervous  vibra¬ 
tions  and  that  they  only  induce  vague  contentless  emo¬ 
tions  in  the  mind,  our  thought  is  freed  from  a  host  of 
false  and  misleading  ideas  and  we  reach  a  firm  basis  for 
the  application  of  music  in  church  work.  To  confine  its 
primary  effect  to  purely  physical  and  at  best  psychical 
limitations,  may  seem  to  degrade  music,  but  such  is  not 
the  case.  The  results  of  pleasure,  of  infinite  expressive¬ 
ness,  of  transcendent  beauty  still  remain.  The  physical 
and  psychical  are  degraded  and  degrading  only  when  we 
have  made  them  so.  They  are  the  helpful  handmaids  of 
the  spirit,  indispensable  to  our  highest  culture,  happiness 
and  character. 


REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  are  the  ends  sought  in  church  music? 

2.  In  what  lines  is  church  music  applied? 

3.  What  is  the  value  of  music  in  the  stated  service? 

4.  Why  use  different  music  in  devotional  meetings? 

5.  Where  should  the  inspirational  value  of  music  be  sought? 

6.  Has  church  music  any  pedagogical  value? 

7.  How  are  sentimental  songs  in  religious  work  justified? 

8.  How  does  church  music  act  in  a  service? 


172 


THE  PSYCHOLOGY  OF  MUSIC 


9.  Has  the  physical  effect  of  music  any  value  in  church  work? 

10.  Should  we  seek  to  give  pleasure  by  church  music? 

11.  What  attitude  does  the  hearing  of  music  produce  in  the 
hearer? 

12.  What  is  the  organizing  effect  of  music  on  an  assembly? 

13.  What  emotional  preparation  in  the  mind  of  the  hearer 
results  from  music? 

14.  What  effect  has  music  on  existing  emotion? 

15.  What  is  the  effect  of  a  solemn  prelude  to  a  worshipful 
service? 

16.  Distinguish  between  awe  produced  by  great  music  or  great 
architecture  and  worshipful  awe. 

17.  Describe  the  emotional  progress  in  a  service  and  analyze 
the  contribution  of  music  to  it. 

18.  How  may  a  purely  human  emotion  be  replaced  by  a  re¬ 
ligious  one? 

19.  Where  is  such  a  substitution  of  emotions  most  useful? 

20.  In  finding  a  physical  basis  for  the  effect  of  music  have  we 
degraded  it  or  robbed  it  of  any  of  its  power? 


Ill 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


XIII 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC 

Supplementary  Reading:  Parry,  “  The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of 
Music,”  Appleton,  N.  Y. ;  Rowbotham,  “  History  of  Music  ” ; 
Wallaschek,  “  Primitive  Music  ” ;  Dickinson,  “  The  Study  of  the 
History  of  Music,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  N.  Y. 

i.  Study  of  the  Origin  of  Music  Purely 

Speculative 

When  we  seek  to  find  the  origin  of  music  we  plunge 
into  the  mists  of  speculation,  for  it  lies  back  in  the  pre¬ 
historic  period  that  yields  us  no  data.  We  have  no 
definite  facts  to  guide  us.  It  does  us  little  or  no  good 
to  have  recourse  to  inferences  from  the  evolutionary 
hypothesis,  for  the  wish  of  its  devotees  to  establish  their 
theses  breeds  nothing  but  wild  speculations  which  un¬ 
fortunately  often  masquerade  as  established  facts. 

Two  headlands  alone  rise  above  the  fog, — the  normal 
musical  development  of  infants,  and  the  musical  efforts 
of  savage  tribes  which  may  be  looked  upon  as  practical 
contemporaries  of  primitive  man.  From  these  we  may 
lay  down  the  course  of  our  speculations  and  hope  to  reach 
approximate  truth. 


2.  Music  Innate 

The  impulse  to  utter  cries  and  make  noises  expressive 
of  feelings  and  in  responsiveness  to  them  is  innate.1 

1  “  The  impulse  to  make  a  noise  as  an  expression  of  feeling  is 
universally  admitted,  and  it  may  also  be  noted  that  it  has  a 
tendency  to  arouse  sympathy  in  an  auditor  of  any  kind,  and  an 
excitement  analogous  to  that  felt  by  the  maker  of  the  noise.” — C. 
Hubert  H.  Parry,  “  The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of  Music.” 

175 


176  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Man  cries  and  sings  as  instinctively  and  spontaneously  as 
a  bird  sings.  The  first  cry  of  a  new-born  babe  usually 
consists  of  two  or  more  notes  of  varying  pitch.  As  the 
child  develops,  it  utters  more  and  more  varied  tones,  not 
only  of  distress  but  also  of  pleasure. 

It  also  soon  takes  delight  in  hearing  and  making  per¬ 
cussive  noises,  more  or  less  rhythmical.  These  noises 
are  not  merely  incidental,  like  the  pecking  of  the  sap 
sucker,  but  made  for  their  own  sake.  Responsiveness  to 
music  is  also  manifest  at  once  and  rapidly  developed,  as 
seen  in  the  effect  not  only  of  lullabies  but  also  of  other 
music.  Many  children  learn  to  sing  tunes  at  a  very  early 
age,  occasionally  even  before  they  learn  to  talk.  Having 
access  to  a  piano  or  organ  they  pick  out  little  phrases 
that  are  crudely  melodic. 

The  very  earliest  historical  hints  regarding  music,  as 
found  in  Genesis  4 : 2  and  23,  24,  indicate  that  in  the 
sixth  generation  after  Adam  and  apparently  within  his 
lifetime,  stringed  and  wind  instruments  were  in  use  and 
songs  regarding  important  personal  experiences  were 
sung.  The  family  of  Lamech  was  evidently  musical  as 
well  as  inventive  and  artistic  in  handicraft.  Whatever 
one’s  attitude  towards  these  early  records,  whether  his¬ 
torical  or  mythical,  they  assure  the  very  early  existence 
of  the  various  forms  of  music. 

(a)  The  Theory  of  Darwin.  The  suggestion  of  Dar¬ 
win  that  music,  both  as  melody  and  rhythm,  was  first 
acquired  by  the  early  progenitors  of  the  race  to  enhance 
sex  attractiveness  is  to  take  an  incidental  application  for 
the  source.  Long  before  the  sex  impulse  develops,  the 
normal  child  has  found  methods  of  expressing  in  sounds 
a  great  complex  of  emotions.  Indeed,  instead  of  being 
the  source  of  all  musical  development,  the  adolescent 
period,  with  its  vague  sex  consciousness,  supplies  only 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC 


177 


the  latest  large  impulse  to  the  use  of  sound  as  an  expres¬ 
sive  medium. 

( b )  Spencer's  Theory.  Herbert  Spencer  urges  that 
music  grows  out  of  the  natural  cadences  of  human  speech. 
But  cadences  of  speech  and  music  have  no  direct  rela¬ 
tion.  While  in  singing  the  same  organs  are  used  as  in 
speaking,  the  character  of  the  sounds  is  entirely  different. 
They  have  no  organized  variation.  In  so  far  as  there 
are  variations  of  pitch,  they  follow  no  established  series 
of  tones,  or  scale.  Its  tones  of  varied  pitch  have  no 
relation  to  each  other.  Instead  of  the  twelve  semitones 
of  the  musical  diatonic  scale,  it  uses  a  hundred  or  more 
variations  within  the  octave,  and  each  human  being  has 
a  selection  of  his  own.  There  may  be  pleasing  variation 
of  pitch  in  a  voice,  but  not  melody  in  any  proper  sense. 

Moreover,  there  are  instinctive  cries  and  ululations 
among  children  not  old  enough  to  analyze  the  cadences 
of  speech  and  to  organize  a  series  of  tunes  for  singing. 

( c )  W alias chek’s  Theory.  Nor  can  we  accept  the 
theory  of  Richard  Wallaschek  that  music  is  due  to  the 
“  Spieltrieb,”  or  instinct  for  play,  growing  out  of  the 
“  surplus  of  energy,”  finding  expression  in  rhythm. 
Infants,  before  they  show  any  capacity  for  or  recognition 
of  rhythm,  not  only  use  tones  of  a  variety  of  pitch,  but 
are  susceptible  to  them  as  in  lullabies  having  a  negligible 
element  of  rhythm. 

Rhythm  affects  the  nerves  more  than  does  melody,  it 
is  true,  and  hence  is  cultivated  more  by  primitive  man, 
but  it  by  no  means  follows  that  rhythm  precedes  and  that 
melody  grows  out  of  it,  as  Wallaschek  argues.  They  are 
contemporaneous.  The  capacity  and  inner  urge  of  both 
lies  in  the  constitution  of  man. 

( d )  The  Bird  Theory.  The  theory  formerly  held  that 
in  music  men  imitate  the  songs  of  birds  has  few  or  no 


178  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


advocates  now.  There  is  only  one  instance  in  the  music 
of  primitive  men  of  any  imitation  of  bird  song.  A  wild 
duck  of  Kamchatka  has  a  series  of  diatonic  notes  as 


follows : 


£ -  q  H 

q ~  :: 

y 

1  -  i.  ■  J  — J  r.. 

J  .  . 

If 

"Y  H  —4  m  1 

9 

A: 

1  -  LTU|  =ZZ3 

which  the  natives 


ing  as  the  singing  of  some  birds  is,  few  of  them  have  any 
definite  melodic  basis  for  their  notes.  The  white- 
throated  sparrow  has  a  distinct  call,  albeit  there  are 
variants,  on  a  diatonic  basis, 


2" 

r - — 

,  ‘4 

'  '1 — ^ — r — - - - 

rl 

. ..  £2  m  m _  m 

g.   g  -  f 

W  W  ""  W .  W  "  1  W  " 

L| - 1 1 - 1 - 

(i  1  1  T  i  I- 

All  day  long  fid  -  de  -  ling,  fid-de  -  ling,  fid  -  de  -  ling. 


but  the  more  varied  and  fertile-noted  song  sparrow  has  no 
regard  for  any  scale.  Besides,  the  songs  of  birds  at  their 
best  are  merely  more  or  less  mechanical  iterations  of  a 
few  calls.  These  make  none  of  the  nervous  impressions, 
and  express  and  evoke  none  of  the  emotions  we  connect 
with  music.  The  effect  of  the  eerie  notes  of  the  hermit 
thrush  are  due  to  the  mellowing  effect  of  distance  and 
the  dusk  of  the  evening  time  when  he  sings  most  freely 
and  spontaneously.  Heard  near  at  hand,  much  of  the 
charm  of  his  notes  is  lost. 

But  why  deny  to  man  the  original  capacity  for  music 
this  theory  allows  the  birds? 

It  should  not  be  overlooked  that  none  of  these  theories 
accounts  for  the  inherent  impulse  to  make  music  by 
mechanical  means,  such  as  clapping  of  hands,  beating  of 
hollow  logs  or  gourds. 


3.  The  Raw  Materials  of  Music 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  more  or  less  rude  out¬ 
cries  and  other  spontaneous  vocal  sounds  and  the  instinc- 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC 


179 


tively  used  mechanical  methods  of  producing  expressive 
sounds  are  merely  the  raw  materials  of  music.  They 
have  a  certain  melodiousness,  crude  and  unorganized  as  it 
may  be,  in  its  variations  of  pitch  and  rhythm,  in  its  essen¬ 
tial  time  relations  of  tones,  albeit  not  fully  organized. 

While  rhythm  makes  the  strongest  nervous  impression, 
melody  as  based  on  variations  of  pitch  is  the  very  first 
element  in  musical  development.  Knowing  nothing  of  a 
scale,  yet  the  infant  of  a  few  days  raises  the  pitch  of  its 
voice  higher  and  higher  as  its  distress  or  its  desire  for 
food  increases,  both  to  express  its  feelings  and  to  impress 
its  mother  or  other  attendants.  So  much  for  the  origin 
and  development  of  the  unconscious  musical  impulse. 

4.  The  Birth  of  the  Artistic  Musical  Impulse 

But  when  these  spontaneous  shouts  and  cries  and 
ululations,  whether  of  mirth  and  joy,  pain  and  distress, 
or  other  feelings,  and  the  more  or  less  instinctive  efforts 
to  make  a  rhythmical  noise  by  rude  mechanical  methods 
expressive  of  the  nervous  reactions  to  primitive  emo¬ 
tions,  come  up  into  clear  consciousness  and  their  effects 
are  noted,  analysis,  study,  and  purpose  combine  to  trans¬ 
form  these  raw  materials  into  a  conscious  effort  to  pro¬ 
duce  them  in  an  orderly,  intelligent  way,  either  to  secure 
definite  religious,  social  or  military  ends  or  to  give 
artistic  pleasure,  however  elementary. 

It  is  out  of  this  objectivizing  of  melodious  and  rhyth¬ 
mical  sounds  that  music  as  we  conceive  of  it  is  born. 
The  sounds  produced,  whatever  their  nature,  are  no 
longer  instinctive,  but  are  planned,  deliberate,  purposeful. 
Man  has  risen  into  the  region  of  musical  art.  Before  it 
was  nature  working  spontaneously,  effective  undoubtedly, 
beautiful  possibly;  now  it  becomes  art, — it  is  actually 
music. 


180  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


5.  Rhythm  Took  the  Prominent  Place  Originally 

But  when  these  sounds,  made  personally  or  by  asso¬ 
ciates,  or  by  mechanical  means,  rise  objectively  into  con¬ 
sciousness,  unaffected  by  tradition  or  convention,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  rhythm  took  the  prominent  place, 
because  of  its  greater  effect  upon  not  only  the  sensory 
nerves,  but  upon  the  sympathetic  and  motor  nerves  as 
well.  That  is  as  true  in  the  musical  development  of  the 
individual  as  in  that  of  the  tribe  or  race  and  its  greater 
or  less  predominance  serves  to  mark  the  stage  of  develop¬ 
ment  reached  in  both  cases. 

Moreover,  melody  acts  upon  the  nerves  in  a  more 
subtle  and  elusive  way  than  rhythm  and  hence  there  must 
be  a  sensitivizing  and  refining  of  the  nerves  before  its  full 
value  as  a  nervous  reagent  can  be  secured.  Hence  in  a 
savage  or  even  barbaric  people  melody  will  be  very  crude 
and  without  definite  design,  often  little  more  than  the 
natural  cadences  of  speech  under  the  influence  of  strong 
feeling,  while  persons  of  little  refinement,  even  among 
a  civilized  people,  will  respond  only  to  strongly  marked 
rhythms  and  simple,  emotional  melodies.  The  practical 
application  of  these  facts  must  not  be  overlooked. 

6.  The  Development  of  Melody 

The  recognition  of  melodious  sounds  in  nature  could 
not  but  be  immediate.  The  whistling  and  soughing  of  the 
wind  in  the  trees,  or  its  roaring  in  the  storm,  the  cries  of 
various  wild  animals,  the  attractive  songs  of  the  birds 
with  their  various  melodies, — all  the  myriad  sounds  of 
nature  with  their  changing  pitch — all  appealed  to  the 
melodic  responsiveness  inherent  in  the  nerves  of  primitive 
man. 

Then  there  was  undoubtedly  an  almost  immediate 


THE  OBIGIN  OF  MUSIC 


181 


observation  of  the  variations  and  of  the  nature  of  the 
spontaneous  cries  and  cadences  of  speech  expressing 
various  emotions  and  of  the  effects  they  produced  upon 
the  hearers,  and  this  gave  more  material  to  the  native 
impulse  to  create  melody.  In  narratives  the  dramatic 
instinct  seized  upon  these  as  enhancements  of  the  effect, 
and  the  natural  cadences  were  developed  and  exaggerated 
into  a  chanting  rendition  which  finally  developed  into  an 
improvised  recitative  song  with  a  rude  rhythmical  accom¬ 
paniment  of  stringed  instruments  or  of  drums  of  some 
kind. 

There  was  no  tune  in  the  modern  sense,  no  symmetrical 
form,  no  strophe  and  anti-strophe,  no  adaptation  to 
underlying  harmonic  progression.2  It  was  formless  and 
continuous  variation  of  pitch,  rising  and  falling,  not  in  a 
definite  figure  such  as  a  cuckoo  or  white  throated  sparrow 
would  use,  but  in  an  instinctive,  unorganized,  unstudied 
recording  of  the  intensity  of  emotion. 

It  was  easy  to  improvise,  as  there  were  no  rules  to  con¬ 
sider  ;  all  that  was  necessary  was  to  reproduce  the  definite 
emotion  of  the  story  or  text  and  let  spontaneous  expres¬ 
sion  do  the  rest.  It  is  doubtful  whether  at  this  early  stage 
there  were  any  definite,  rememberable  musical  phrases. 
It  must  be  kept  in  mind  that  there  was  no  harmony;  the 
accompaniment  repeated  the  vocal  notes  in  part  or  merely 
accentuated  the  rhythm  suggested  by  the  text. 

Even  after  some  phrases  were  definitely  formulated, 
they  were  monotonously  simple.  This  is  evident  from  the 
music  of  savage  and  barbarous  peoples  of  our  own  time. 

2  “  Music  indeed  cannot  exist  till  the  definiteness  of  some  kind 
of  design  is  present  in  the  succession  of  sounds.  The  impression 
produced  by  vague  sounds  is  vague  and  soon  passes  away  alto¬ 
gether.” — C.  Hubert  H.  Parry,  “  The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of 
Music.” 


182  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


They  chant  rather  than  sing  melodies.  Their  cadences, 
rather  than  tunes,  are  formless,  more  rhythmic  than 
melodious.  They  are  weird  and  have  strange  nervous 
reactions,  because  they  follow  no  definite  scale  and  vary 
in  pitch  without  any  possible  harmonic  basis.  Aside 
from  phonographic  reproductions,  any  effort  to  report 
them  and  reduce  them  to  our  accepted  notation  is  as 
futile  as  like  efforts  to  reproduce  the  notes  of  the  hermit 
thrush. 

But  gradually  the  relations  of  tone  pitches  were  recog¬ 
nized  and  definite  scales  of  a  sort  evolved.  Even  then 
the  range  of  pitch  was  rather  slight,  and  for  a  long  time 
no  complete  series  of  tone  pitches  like  our  present  scales 
were  adopted,  despite  the  advance  of  philosophy,  litera¬ 
ture,  law,  and  other  manifestations  of  civilization. 

This  was  true  in  spite  of  the  invention  of  stringed  in¬ 
struments  with  the  varying  pitches  of  their  several  longer 
and  shorter  strings,  and  despite  the  evolution  of  the  pipe 
or  flute  from  the  hollow  reed.  The  organizing  of  the 
various  tone  pitches  into  definite  scales  and  their  use  in 
emotional  reaction  and  expression  awaited  the  needed 
refinement  and  subtilizing  of  a  nervous  system  capable  of 
apprehending  and  recording  their  effects. 

7.  The  Development  of  Rhythm 

The  recognition  of  the  relation  of  sounds  in  time,  or 
rhythm,  is  inherent  in  the  human  nervous  organization, — 
as  much  so  as  is  the  sense  of  colour  or  the  appreciation  of 
pleasing  and  disagreeable  flavours.  The  nervous  response 
to  rhythm  as  heard  in  nature  was  immediate  and  spon¬ 
taneous,  as  may  be  demonstrated  by  the  differing  reac¬ 
tions  of  most  infants  to  unrhythmical  and  clearly  rhyth¬ 
mical  sounds.  There  is  no  need,  therefore,  of  wild  specu¬ 
lations  regarding  outward  sources  of  rhythmic  suggestion 


THE  ORIGIN  OP  MUSIC 


183 


and  of  the  development  of  rhythmic  responsiveness  such 
as  the  throbbing  of  the  temples  or  the  regularity  of  res¬ 
piration. 

The  expression  of  the  rhythmical  sense  was  very  easy, 
as  there  were  abundant  easily  recognized  mechanical 
means  of  expressing  it.  The  clapping  of  the  hands,  the 
striking  together  of  stones,  which  presently  evolved  into 
the  clangour  of  metallic  cymbals,  the  pounding  of  a  hollow 
tree  with  a  stick  developing  into  the  drum  in  all  its  varied 
forms  of  hollow  reverberating  structure,  were  the  pro¬ 
genitors  of  instruments  of  percussion. 

The  exciting  attack  of  these  instruments  of  percussion 
upon  the  nerves  of  primitive  peoples,  and  the  ease  with 
which  they  were  made  and  played,  explain  why  rhythm 
has  been  the  preponderant  musical  element  and  why  this 
has  been  found  true  the  world  over  and  the  ages  through. 

But  instruments  of  percussion  were  not  the  only  means 
of  impressing  the  rhythmical  sense.  The  rhythmic  value 
of  the  twang  of  picked  or  struck  strings  was  soon  discov¬ 
ered  and  utilized  to  vary  and  emphasize  the  rhythmic 
attack  on  the  nerves.  This  explains  why  in  the  absence 
of  distinct  melodies,  the  harp  and  the  lyre  were  so  ex¬ 
tensively  used  in  ancient  times.  Even  more  effective  for 
this  purpose  were  the  trumpets  and  other  loud  wind 
instruments  that  evolved  out  of  the  dulcet  reed,  and 
hence  the  trumpet  and  ram’s  horn  were  so  largely  repre¬ 
sented  in  the  ancient  orchestras. 

8.  The  Development  of  the  Dance 

The  observation  of  rhythms  and  their  effects  upon  the 
motor  nervous  system  was  instinctive  and  immediate. 
Pronounced  rhythms  that  inspired  and  controlled  locomo¬ 
tion  developed  into  marches.  Other  rhythms  stimulated 
the  spontaneous  emotional  action  of  other  parts  of  the 


184  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


body  such  as  that  of  the  feet,  and  the  dance  was  born. 
This  is  found  in  every  age,  in  every  form  and  stage  of 
civilization. 

In  thinking  of  the  dance  one  must  disassociate  the 
sexual  phase  prevalent  in  our  day,  or  we  shall  fail  to 
comprehend  its  constant  association  with  religious  cere¬ 
monies.  The  dance  is  everywhere  found  in  a  rudimentary 
form  in  nature;  it  is  coextensive  with  life.  It  is  the  joy 
of  physical  movement  stimulated  by  rhythmic  music. 
But  its  appeal,  even  in  its  most  innocent  forms,  utterly 
apart  from  all  sexual  suggestion,  is  after  all  entirely 
physical,  and  hence,  while  not  lacking  in  charm,  has  no 
high  value  or  noble  suggestion.  Used  in  the  early  ages 
by  all  religions,  including  the  Hebrew  and  the  Christian ; 3 
as  a  means  of  adding  intensity  to  religious  ceremonies,  it 
has  fallen  into  disuse  for  this  purpose  in  direct  proportion 
to  the  increase  of  refinement,  until  in  our  own  time  it 
has  descended  to  a  cheap  social  diversion  deprecated  or 
antagonized  by  persons  of  high  and  sensitive  moral  char¬ 
acter,  more  particularly  because  of  its  sexual  suggestive¬ 
ness. 

9.  The  Development  of  Musical  Instruments 

Aside  from  the  use  and  development  of  the  human 
voice,  the  world’s  noblest  and  most  expressive  musical 
instrument,  the  primitive  man  discovered  and  invented 

8  The  writer  remembers  seeing,  as  a  small  boy,  in  the  midst  of 
a  regular  religious  service  of  considerable  emotional  interest, 
women  rise  in  their  places  and  engage  in  a  quiet  revolving  dance 
through  the  aisles  for  a  few  minutes  and  then  return  to  their 
seats.  Those  participating  in  this  movement  were  devout  elderly 
women  of  retiring  disposition  and  there  could  be  no  basis  for  a 
suspicion  of  self-conscious  vanity  or  desire  of  conspicuousness. 
Even  then  it  was  a  survival  from  previous  generations  of  a 
method  of  expression  of  religious  emotion. 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC 


185 


all  of  the  three  types  of  musical  instruments  now  in 
use.4 

(a)  Percussive  instruments,  such  as  the  drum,  the 
tambourine,  and  the  cymbal. 

( b )  Wind  instruments,  such  as  the  pipe,  the  bugle,  and 
the  trumpet. 

( c )  Stringed  instruments,  such  as  the  harp,  the  lyre, 
and  the  psaltery. 

Later  instruments,  including  the  modern,  are  mere 
developments  and  elaborations  of  the  foregoing,  the  chief 
lines  of  improvement  being  the  perfect  control  of  tone 
pitches,  and  their  organization  into  scales,  and  the  varia¬ 
tion  and  enrichment  of  tone  colour. 

io.  Music  Originally  Purely  an  Applied  Art 

“  When  music,  heavenly  Muse,  was  young  ”  she  was 
simply  a  handmaiden,  a  servant  assisting  other  agencies 
in  furthering  religious,  social,  military,  and  other  like 
interests.  Music,  both  vocal  and  instrumental,  was  used 
by  medicine  men  and  priests  to  deepen  and  intensify  the 
effect  of  their  incantations  or  their  religious  rites  and 
ceremonies. 

It  was  used  in  connection  with  poetic  recitations  and 
dances  to  give  dignity  to  great  political  and  social  occa¬ 
sions.  In  public  and  private  banquets  it  was  performed 
as  an  exhilarating  agency  and  as  a  diversion.  The 
Greeks  looked  upon  it  as  an  educational  help  and  even 
as  a  moral  stimulant. 

4  How  early  the  impulse  to  invent  musical  instruments  was  felt 
may  be  judged  from  the  fact  that  in  a  cavern  at  Gourdan  (Haute 
Garonne)  there  was  found,  with  other  implements  of  the  Stone 
Age,  a  bone  pierced  with  holes  at  the  side,  undoubtedly  a  rude 
flute.  As  another  indication  we  may  refer  to  the  flute  found  in 
an  Egyptian  tomb  of  the  Bronze  Age  (3000  b.  c.)  and  to  the  great 
harp  recently  found  in  the  tomb  of  Tut-aukh-ammon. 


186  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Music  had  no  independent  existence  as  an  art.  It  was 
simply  a  stimulating,  exciting  agency.  Its  influence  was 
felt,  but  the  method  of  its  action  utterly  uncomprehended ; 
hence  it  was  looked  upon  as  mysterious  and  even  super¬ 
natural. 


ii.  The  Development  of  Religious  Ritual 

Savages  are  everywhere  found  to  be  intensely  religious. 
Their  sanctions  of  law  and  custom  as  well  as  religious 
rites  and  ceremonies  have  a  religious  basis.  The  religious 
instinct  is  always  gregarious,  expressing  itself  in  sacrifice, 
liturgy,  and  festival,  in  an  assembly  of  some  kind,  either 
public  or  exclusive.  Just  as  the  train-crier,  the  ragman, 
and  other  persons  appealing  to  a  multitude  of  people  fall 
into  formal  cadences,  so  the  officiating  priest  acquired 
certain  measured  tones  of  speech  which  were  more  and 
more  definitely  marked  until  they  became  a  chant. 

It  was  a  short  and  evident  step  to  reinforce  these 
rhythmical  cadences  with  instruments  and  so  enhance 
their  hypnotic  power  over  the  hearers.  This  emphasis  of 
the  rhythm  led  to  bodily  movements  and  gestures.  Here 
we  have  the  three  essential  elements  of  a  religious  ritual 
in  all  ages,  in  all  climes :  the  intoning  voice  or  voices,  the 
instrumental  accompaniment  (with  the  voice,  or  without 
it  as  an  intensifier)  and  the  ritualistic  genuflexions  or 
dance.  Religion  has  developed  music  for  its  own  devout 
or  spectacular  uses  and  the  idea  that  it  might  develop  into 
an  independent  art  never  crossed  the  minds  of  men  until 
these  later  centuries. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  basis  have  we  for  speculation  regarding  the  origin 
of  music? 

2.  What  is  the  primary  origin  of  music? 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  MUSIC 


187 


3.  How  early  do  we  find  references  to  songs  and  instru¬ 
ments? 

4.  State  Darwin’s  theory  of  the  origin  of  music  and  the 
objections  thereto. 

5.  What  is  Spencer’s  theory?  Give  the  reply. 

6.  Why  is  Wallaschek’s  theory  unacceptable? 

7.  What  is  the  bird  theory  and  the  objections  thereto? 

8.  What  is  the  relation  of  natural  cries  and  primitive  mechan¬ 
ical  sounds  to  music? 

9.  When  and  how  does  the  artistic  impulse  manifest  itself? 

10.  What  element  in  music  was  preeminent  at  first?  and  why? 

11.  If  variations  of  pitch  are  first  produced  in  human  and 
other  cries,  why  does  melody  take  a  subordinate  place  in  primitive 
musical  development? 

12.  How  did  the  development  of  melody  proceed? 

13.  What  is  the  origin  of  rhythm  in  music?  How  was  it 
developed? 

14.  What  was  the  relation  of  music  to  the  primitive  dance? 

15.  What  three  classes  of  instruments  were  early  invented? 

16.  What  was  the  motive  for  the  early  development  of  music? 

17.  Give  music’s  relation  to  development  of  religious  ritual. 


XIV 


PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 

Supplementary  Reading:  Dickinson,  “The  Study  of  the  History 
of  Music,”  and  “  Music  in  the  Western  Church,”  Scribner’s 
Sons,  New  York;  Baltzell,  “History  of  Music,”  Presser,  Phila¬ 
delphia;  Engel,  “The  Music  of  the  Most  Ancient  Nations,” 
Reeves,  London;  Stainer,  “The  Music  of  the  Bible,”  Novello, 
London;  Naumann,  “The  History  of  Music,”  Cassell,  London; 
Grove,  “  Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians,”  Art.  “  Greek 
Music,”  Presser,  Philadelphia;  Parry,  “The  Evolution  of  the 
Art  of  Music,”  Appleton,  New  York;  Williams,  “The  Story  of 
Notation,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Rowbotham,  “History 
of  Music,”  Bentley,  London. 

In  making  a  hurried  survey  of  the  development  of 
music,  we  must  content  ourselves  with  the  barest  outlines, 
trusting  that  the  reader  will  seek  the  more  interesting  de¬ 
tails  in  the  supplementary  reading  we  have  ventured  to 
suggest. 


i.  The  Lines  of  Development 

(a)  Logical  Development.  The  logical  development 
has  followed  in  a  general  way  the  following  course: 
Rhythm,  Harmony,  and  Form. 

( b )  Development  of  Appeal.  There  has  been  a  strik¬ 
ing  development  in  the  appeal  that  music  makes  to  human 
beings. 

(i)  The  Nervous  Appeal.  The  early  music  and  the 
music  of  savages  and  barbarous  people  of  the  present  day 
make  their  appeal  almost  wholly  to  the  physical  nature, 
i.  e.,  the  nervous  system.  This  we  shall  find  true  until 
iooo  a.  d.  The  music  of  the  Christian  Church  through 
its  first  millennium  was  not  exciting,  but  calming  and  de¬ 
pressing,  admirably  adapted  to  the  sole  purpose  of  laying 

188 


PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


189 


a  physical  basis  for  reverence  and  awe  in  public  service. 
None  the  less,  it  was  a  physical  appeal. 

(2)  The  Intellectual  Appeal.  Beginning  with  the  sec¬ 
ond  millennium,  musicians  turned  to  the  intellectual  ele¬ 
ments  of  music  and  produced  music  based  wholly  on 
rules  and  methods  and  devices  in  polyphonal  composi¬ 
tions.  There  was  still  a  great  deal  of  physical  appeal  in 
actual  church  life,  but  the  progressive  impulse  was  in¬ 
tellectual  only. 

(3)  The  Emotional  Appeal.  In  the  fifteenth  century 
we  find  traces  of  a  desire  to  make  music  a  means  of  emo¬ 
tional  expression  and  that  tendency,  building  upon  the 
intellectual  materials  acquired  more  or  less  mechanically 
in  the  previous  centuries,  led  to  a  rapid  widening  of  the 
musical  horizon  and  to  the  application  of  music  to  the 
expression  not  only  of  the  fundamental  emotions  of  men, 
but  also  of  the  most  subtle  and  elusive  feelings,  and  of 
their  fierce  and  unbridled  passions.  We  are  still  engaged 
in  finding  new  methods  and  forms  for  both  the  normal 
and  abnormal  emotional  states  of  our  age. 

2.  Music  Among  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians 

and  Greeks 

What  has  been  said  of  primitive  music  in  general  ap¬ 
plies  to  the  music  of  these  early  nations.  We  have  few 
definite  data,  beyond  vague  allusions  and  the  reliefs  on 
surviving  monuments,  or  paintings  and  carvings  in  tombs 
and  temples ;  but  we  have  enough  to  assure  us  that  the 
music  of  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  Greeks,  and  Hebrews 
of  which  we  have  the  slightest  record  was  already  far 
superior  to  that  of  most  of  the  savage  tribes  and  barba¬ 
rous  peoples  of  the  present  age.  In  these  cases  there  is 
no  hope  of  connecting  up  with  the  origin  of  music. 

(a)  Music  Among  the  Egyptians. 


190  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


(1)  Prevalence  of  Musical  Culture.  In  ancient  Egypt 
music  was  a  sacred  art  controlled  by  the  priests  who  al¬ 
ready  at  the  beginning  of  history  suffered  no  innovations 
or  changes  in  their  sacred  hymns  or  melodies.1  They 
understood  the  relation  of  tone  pitches  to  length  and 
tautness  of  strings  and  had  systems  of  keys  and  notation. 
The  paintings  and  carvings  in  their  tombs  and  temples 
that  have  come  down  to  us  show  that  they  had  a  large 
variety  of  instruments,  percussion,  strings,  and  wind, 
from  the  small  tinkling  sistrum  to  the  great  thirteen¬ 
stringed  harp  larger  than  our  own.  The  harp  was  the 
nucleus  of  the  Egyptian  orchestra.  Out  of  a  full  or¬ 
chestra  of  fifty  pieces  twenty  were  harps.  As  chromatics 
were  impossible  on  these  instruments,  their  scale  must 
have  been  diatonic,  as  we  found  the  ancient  Egyptian 
flute  (3000  b.  c.)  to  be.  The  compass  of  the  whole  or¬ 
chestra  was  four  and  a  half  octaves. 

(2)  Public  Use  of  Music.  Music  was  a  never  absent 
part  of  all  Egyptian  public  and  private  festivities,  pro¬ 
cessions,  religious  rites  and  ceremonies,  and  formal  fu¬ 
nerals.  They  had  a  rich  treasury  of  lyrical  poems  and 
sacred  hymns  sung  at  public  or  temple  ceremonies. 

(3)  The  Lack  of  Harmony.  With  their  knowledge  of 
pitch  relations  and  the  methods  of  varying  them  and  their 
great  range  of  instrumental  effects,  one  would  infer  that 
they  had  discovered  the  harmony  existing  between  con¬ 
cordant  tones;  but  despite  the  pictures  of  players  using 

1  “  Plato  tells  us  that  amongst  these  sacred  songs  some  must 
have  been  of  great  antiquity,  as  he  believed  that  good  music  and 
beautiful  works  of  art  had  existed  amongst  them  for  ten  thou¬ 
sand  years  without  suffering  any  change.  *  In  their  possession/ 
adds  the  Greek  philosopher,  ‘  are  songs  having  the  power  to  exalt 
and  ennoble  mankind,  and  these  could  only  emanate  from  gods 
or  godlike  men.’  ” — Naumann,  “  The  History  of  Music.” 


Fig.  3.  A  harp  on  a  stand,  a  man  beating  time,  and  a  player 
on  the  tamboura. 


Fig.  4.  Performance  on  the  double  pipe, 
with  a  rhythmical  accompaniment. 


Fig.  5.  Egyptian 
Sistrum. 


Egyptian  Musical  Instruments 


(191) 


192  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


both  hands,  there  is  no  evidence,  either  from  their  own 
writings  or  from  the  reports  of  Greek  writers  on  the 
subject,  that  they  had  discovered  or  exploited  the  har¬ 
monic  relations  between  tones.  They  may  have  played  in 
octaves  or  even  fifths,  unconsciously  anticipating  the  mix¬ 
ture  stops  of  the  modern  organ,  in  order  to  strengthen 
their  simple  melodies,  just  as  one  hears,  even  in  this  day, 
voices  of  unusual  range  in  unison  singing  among  un¬ 
musical  people,  sing  the  melody  in  those  tone  relations.2 
It  is  also  possible  that  there  was  a  crude  harmony  known 
to  the  priests  who  kept  it  in  esoteric  secrecy  as  they  evi¬ 
dently  did  many  other  methods  of  producing  illusions  and 
apparently  supernatural  effects. 

( b )  Music  Among  the  Assyrians.  As  in  all  other 
early  civilizations,  music  among  the  Assyrians  was  in¬ 
timately  associated  with  liturgies  and  ceremonial  rites  and 
controlled  by  the  priests  as  a  sacred  art.  Their  most 
ancient  monuments  have  tracings  of  representations  of 
instruments  and  players.  Their  earliest  surviving  litera¬ 
ture  contains  hymns  to  the  gods.  Among  the  tablets  dug 
up  on  the  site  of  Nineveh  was  a  service  addressed  to 
Assyrian  gods,  composed  of  hymns,  prayers,  and  peni¬ 
tential  psalms  intended  for  public  worship,  as  expressly 
stated,  and  comparable  to  the  missal  of  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church.  There  was  a  large  variety  of  instru¬ 
ments  used  in  their  temples.  Kings  and  other  high  lords 
maintained  orchestras  at  their  courts. 

In  general,  the  Assyrians  used  the  same  types  of  in- 

2  The  Orientals  had  little  capacity  for  harmony.  Their  whole 
range  of  musical  responsiveness  was  melodic.  On  the  other  hand, 
some  of  the  savage  tribes  of  Africa,  Bushmen  and  Hottentots, 
seem  to  have  it  in  large  measure,  singing  a  second  part  to  a  new 
European  tune  quite  spontaneously.  They  also  play  instruments 
in  quartets. 


PEE- CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


193 


struments  as  the  Egyptians,  probably  handed  down  from 
a  common  ancestry.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that 
their  music  differed  essentially  from  that  of  the  Egyptians 
in  its  crudeness  of  melody,  emphasis  of  rhythm,  depend¬ 
ence  on  mere  noise  for  its  coarser  effects,  and  lack  of 
harmony,  although  Engel  insists  that  their  music  was 
softer,  stringed  instruments  being  chiefly  used,  while  loud 
rhythmical  instruments  were  but  sparingly  employed ;  the 
Egyptians  used  various  kinds  of  instruments  of  percus¬ 
sion  and  the  Hebrews  loud  trumpets  and  other  noisy 
rhythmical  instruments,  although  their  only  instrument  of 
percussion  was  the  toph  or  tambourine,  referred  to  in  the 
Old  Testament  as  the  timbrel  and  the  tabret.  It  was  as¬ 
sociated  with  poetic  recitations  and  with  dances,  as  else¬ 
where. 

( c )  Music  Among  the  Greeks.  There  are  vastly  more 
data  for  the  study  of  music  among  the  Greeks  than  for  the 
other  early  civilizations,  as  many  of  their  treatises  on  the 
subject  have  survived,  besides  full  incidental  discussions 
in  general  literature.  This  is  all  the  more  fortunate  since 
our  modern  music  may  be  said  to  be  the  great-grandchild 
of  Greek  music  through  the  early  and  the  later  Christian 
Church. 

(i)  The  Greeks  Musically  Progressive.  Music  among 
the  Greeks  was  much  more  mobile  and  progressive  than 
among  the  early  nations  already  considered,  as  it  was  not 
controlled  exclusively  by  the  priests  and  subject  to  their 
petrifying  conservatism  after  reaching  a  practical  stage 
of  development;  nor  was  its  study  and  theory  esoteric  in 
its  nature.  It  was  made  the  subject  of  philosophical  and 
aesthetic  as  well  as  mathematical  investigation  and  con¬ 
sideration,  and  hence  developed  from  the  primitive  relig¬ 
ious  beginning  parallel  with  that  of  other  nations  into  a 
somewhat  independent  idealistic  art,  although  more 


Fig.  6.  Assyrian  Harp.  FlG.  7.  The  Assyrian 

(Nebel.)  Cymbals. 


Fig.  9.  Assyrian  Lyre. 
(Kinnor.) 


Fig.  10.  Assyrian  Small  Harp. 
(Kinnor.) 


Assyrian  Musical  Instruments 


(194) 


PEE-  CHEISTI  AN  MUSIC 


195 


philosophical  than  actually  musical.  No  less  a  philosopher 
than  Pythagoras  laid  the  foundations  of  mathematical 
acoustics  and  established  the  Greek  scales  on  a  scientific 
basis.8 

(2)  Nature  of  Greek  Music.  During  the  greater  part 
of  the  history  of  the  Grecian  peoples,  music  consisted  of 
recitative  with  more  or  less  instrumental  accompaniment 
of  a  purely  rhythmical  character,  without  harmony,  and 
accompanied  by  dances  and  other  action  stimulated  by 
the  rhythm.  As  in  other  nations  it  was  merely  a  means 
to  an  end, — the  stirring  and  stimulating  of  the  nervous 
system  with  a  view  of  creating  enthusiasm  in  the  course 
of  social,  political,  military  and  religious  movements  and 
ceremonies. 

(3)  Greek  Conception  of  Music  and  Its  Place.  Music 
was  regarded  with  extreme  reverence  and  held  to  have  a 
supernatural  origin.  Apollo  often  appears  in  their  plastic 
art  with  a  lyre  in  token  of  his  musical  primacy.  Depend¬ 
ent  upon  its  mode,  moral  or  immoral  influence  upon 
human  character  was  ascribed  to  it.4  Various  trades  and 
social  organizations  had  appropriate  songs  of  their  own. 
Song  contests  were  numerous  and  the  victors  were  held 
in  high  honour,  quite  as  much  as  the  victors  in  the  great 
athletic  contests.  Athens  still  takes  pride  in  an  ancient 
monument  commemorating  the  musical  victory  of  one  of 
its  ancient  citizens. 


*  For  the  investigations  of  Pythagoras  see  Pole,  “  The  Philos¬ 
ophy  of  Music,”  p.  92. 

4  Plato  and  Aristoxenus  in  the  ancient  Athenian  days  repre¬ 
sented  the  conservative,  traditional  musical  element,  while  Aris¬ 
totle  justifies  the  innovations  made  by  Phrynis  and  Timotheus  in 
his  day.  The  former  coterie  emphasized  the  moral  and  educa¬ 
tional  value  of  what  they  esteemed  to  be  good  music,  while  the 
latter  denied  its  moral  value  entirely. 


196  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


The  Grecian  melody  was  very  smooth.0  The  notes 
were  equal  in  length,  except  where  one  was  twice  the 

length  of  the  next,  i.  e., 

(4)  The  Lack  of  Harmony.  As  elsewhere,  melody 
was  subordinate  to  rhythm  which  bound  music,  poetry, 
and  action  together  in  the  drama.  While  their  instru¬ 
mental  resources  were  large,  including  double  flutes  and 
double  trumpets,  no  trace  can  be  found  of  the  use  of 
harmony.  It  seems  strange  that  with  so  many  instru¬ 
ments  of  varied  character  and  range  the  concordant 
sounding  of  two  or  more  tones  at  the  same  time  should 
not  have  accidentally  occurred  and  its  effects  observed. 
It  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  excessive  sharpness  of 
their  third  and  seventh  which  made  what  are  our  funda¬ 
mental  triads  somewhat  discordant.  Their  melodies  have 
no  harmonic  basis  such  as  have  ours. 

Perhaps  most  important  of  all,  their  mese  or  dominant 
tone,  the  most  prominent  in  their  melodies,  had  no  evi¬ 
dent  harmonic  relation  to  the  other  notes  of  their  scale. 
Had  harmony  been  discovered,  it  seems  reasonable  to 
believe  that  we  should  find  it  discussed  in  the  writings  of 
the  Grecian  musical  theorists  which  have  come  down  to 
us. 

(5)  The  Influence  of  Egypt.  There  is  little  doubt  that 
the  impulse  to  the  development  of  both  notation  and 
scale  came  from  Egypt  just  as  did  the  initiative  in  the 
pictorial  and  plastic  arts.  Pythagoras  is  said  to  have 
studied  music  in  Egypt  among  the  priests  and  may  have 


5  Very  Early  Greek  Melody  (Circa,  700  B.  c.) 


yfa— q: 

—ap  «  — a  €$> 

=£2 

-(2 - 0- 

—rl—. — 

=1  4= 

-A 

i-l— 

3=  ^ 

4=  F 

—4 — 

— 

PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


197 


had  the  benefit  of  their  esoteric  science  on  the  subject  of 
music.  But,  as  in  the  other  arts,  the  scholar  soon  out¬ 
stripped  the  teacher.  The  ossifying  influence  of  priestly 
conservatism,  disallowing  innovation  and  change,  stopped 
musical  progress  in  Egypt. 

(6)  The  Greek  Scale.  The  Greek  scale  was  the  out¬ 
growth  of  the  Dorian  tetrachord  based  on  the  four 
strings  of  the  lyre;  not  a  chord  of  four  simultaneously 
sounding  notes  of  different  pitch,  but  a  series  of  four 
tones  the  lowest  and  highest  a  perfect  fourth  apart  and 
therefore  fixed  in  their  relation,  while  the  two  inner 
tones  might  be  varied  in  their  intervals :  E  F  G  A  might 
be  the  resultant  series.  On  this  tetrachord  another  could 
be  superimposed,  A  B  C  D,  or  sub-imposed,  B  C  D  E, 
thus  extending  the  scale  in  both  directions.  From  this 
tetrachord  the  several  modes  were  developed.  These 
were  the  scales  varying  in  the  order  of  their  intervals. 

In  the  modern  major  scale  the  intervals  are  all  whole 
steps,  except  those  between  the  third  and  fourth  and 
seventh  and  eighth  tones  which  are  half  steps.  In  the 
modern  melodic  minor  scale  the  half  steps  are  between 
the  second  and  third  and  seventh  and  eighth  tones.  This 
is  true,  no  matter  on  which  tone  we  begin, — C,  or  D,  or 
any  one  of  the  other  notes  of  the  scale.  If  we  begin  on 
C,  it  is  the  key  of  C;  if  on  G,  it  is  the  key  of  G,  etc. 
But  in  every  key  the  location  of  the  whole  and  half  step 
intervals  in  the  scale  is  the  same. 

This  is  not  true  of  the  Greek  modes,  and  hence  it  is 
misleading  to  speak  of  them  as  “  keys.”  The  Greeks  had 
no  black  keys  on  their  pianos,  so  to  speak,  i.  e.,  had  no 
chromatic  notes  or  accidentals.0  Hence,  if  the  scale 

6  That  statement  needs  a  slight  qualification.  Theoretically  they 
had  chromatic  and  enharmonic  scales,  the  latter  containing  quarter 
steps  not  recognized  by  us.  Even  in  their  diatonic  scale  they 
used  and  C#  in  some  modes. 


198  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


began  on  D,  as  in  the  Phrygian  mode,  the  half  steps 
occurred  between  the  second  and  third  and  the  sixth  and 
seventh  notes  of  the  scale.  The  Dorian  mode  began  on  E 
and  hence  the  half  steps  occurred  between  the  first  and 
second  and  fifth  and  sixth  tones.  The  mode  beginning 
on  F,  the  Lydian,  had  the  half  steps  between  the  third  (A) 
and  fourth  (  )  and  the  seventh  and  eighth  notes  of  the 

scale,  being  the  same  as  our  major  scale.  The  Hypo- 
phrygian  mode  began  on  G  and  its  half  steps  were  found 
between  the  third  and  fourth  and  the  sixth  and  seventh 
tones.  To  a  modern  musician  it  seems  strange  that  they 
did  not  see  the  possibilities  of  the  Lydian  mode  on  which 
modern  music  is  largely  based.  Had  their  thirds  of  C 
and  G  (E  and  B)  been  more  concordant  (like  our  own), 
harmony  would  likely  have  been  evolved  and  the  whole 
course  of  the  development  of  Greek  and  Early  Christian 
music  would  have  been  changed.  These  were  the  more 
commonly  used  modes,  but  there  were  a  number  of  others, 
including  a  chromatic  and  an  enharmonic  scale. 

Our  ears  would  not  have  been  pleased  with  their  music 
in  any  mode,  for  it  lacked  all  the  essential  elements  of 
modern  music.7  There  was  no  tonality  in  the  Greek 
system,  no  keynote,  no  relation  between  the  starting  note 

7  “  The  Greeks,  moreover,  were  much  nearer  the  beginning  of 
musical  things,  and  may  be  naturally  expected  to  have  been  more 
under  the  spell  of  the  individual  sympathetic  magnetism  of  the 
performer  than  even  uneducated  modern  people ;  and  the  ac¬ 
counts  we  have  of  their  system  tend  to  confirm  these  views.  Its 
limitations  are  such  as  do  not  encourage  a  belief  in  high  artistic 
development,  for  at  no  time  did  the  scheme  extend  much  beyond 
what  could  be  reproduced  upon  the  white  keys  of  the  pianoforte 
and  an  occasional  B*2  and  C$  and  all  the  notes  used  were  com¬ 
prised  within  the  limits  of  the  low  A  in  the  bass  staff  and  the  E 
at  the  top  of  the  treble  staff.” — C.  Hubert  H.  Parry,  “  The  Evo¬ 
lution  of  the  Art  of  Music.” 


Fig.  11. 


Greek  Lyres. 


Fig.  12. 


Fig.  13. 

Greek  Cythara. 


Fig.  14.  Greek 
Cythara  and  Plectron. 


Fig.  15.  Ulysses  Passing  the  Sirens. 

{From  a  Relief  on  a  Marble  Sarcophagus  in  the  Museum  at  Florence.) 
Showing  the  Pipes  of  Pan,  the  Lyre  and  Double  Flute. 

Grecian  Musical  Instruments 


(199) 


200  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


and  the  other  notes  of  the  tetrachord  or  scale.  A  melody 
could  begin  or  end  on  any  note  without  any  sense  of  dis¬ 
comfort  to  the  hearer.  There  was  no  idea  of  harmony. 
The  music  was  melodic  and  melodic  only. 

It  may  make  these  Greek  scales  based  on  their  modes 
clearer,  if  we  give  them  in  our  modern  notation.  The 
half  steps  are  marked  .  The  important  note  or 

tnese  in  each  scale  is  marked  with  a  V  .  Remembering 
that  most  of  the  notes  of  a  melody  occurred  on  this 
dominant  degree,  we  shall  understand  the  difference  of 
pitch  in  the  scale  and  why  the  representative  of  the 
modern  scale,  the  Lydian,  with  its  high  mese  of  upper  D, 
suggesting  strain  and  passion,  was  looked  upon  as  un¬ 
worthy  and  even  lascivious,8  while  the  Dorian  with  its 
comfortable  mese,  A,  was  approved. 

As  most  of  the  singing  was  done  by  men,  we  place 
those  scales  on  the  bass  staff.  It  will  be  understood  that 
the  whole  scale  included  the  treble  staff  as  well. 


Dorian  v  „  -<s>-  -£2- 

= - == — <9 — Q- - 


- — - — ^ — Q. - - 

H  •  tn  & 

Lydmn   ^g.  L 

f 

Hypodorian 

•  w  ^  &  & 

V ,e>  O  &  -r. 

Hypolydianv  .G-'AA'AL 

-C4  ^ - - - i . 

-3^" - - 

Phrygian 

V 

.a 

•  leu 

a. 

’  ^  r?  ^  — 

Mixolydian 

rv* 

<T2  & 

Hypophrygian 


pv  • 

--J* 

\f 

^7  r2  ^ 

7 

V  O 

- gy-£2— ^ - - - U 

To  distinguish  the  three  octaves  of  this  scale  they  had 
modified  names.  In  the  fourth  century  a.  d.  the  follow¬ 
ing  list  is  given  by  Alypios : 

8  Plato  even  proposed  to  prohibit  its  use. 


PPE-CHKISTIAN  MUSIC 


201 


Low 

Medium 

High 

Hypo-Dorian 

Dorian 

Hyper-Ionian 

Hypo-Ionian 

Ionian 

Hyper-Dorian 

ITypo-Phrygian 

Phrygian 

Hyper-Phrygian 

Hypo-^Eolian 

Hfolian 

Hyper-  zEolian 

Hypo-Lydian 

Lydian 

Hyper-Lydian 

The  effects  of  these  varied  modes  were  quite  different 
— as  much  so  as  those  of  our  major  and  minor  scales. 
The  Dorian  mode  was  held  to  express  courage  and 
aggressiveness ,  the  Phrygian  was  more  genial  and  ex¬ 
citing  and  expressed  pleasure ;  the  Lydian  was  said  to  be 
effeminate  and  voluptuous. 

It  must  always  be  remembered  that  these  scales  had 
no  harmonic  basis.  The  effort  to  harmonize  some  of 
them  would  give  us  strange  effects,  forced  and  fantastic 
in  the  progression  of  the  chords  and  weird  and  painful 
to  the  ordinary  modern  ear. 

These  modes  are  of  commanding  interest  to  us  because 
on  some  of  them  was  based  the  music  of  the  Christian 
Church  for  many  a  century.  In  the  Greek  scale  as 
finally  developed  we  find  our  diatonic  scale.  It  agrees 
with  the  white  keys  of  our  organ,  because  our  organ 
keys  have  been  copied  from  the  Greek  organ  keys  which 
were  naturally  an  outgrowth  of  their  scale.  Modern 
music  differs  from  the  ancient  in  having,  in  addition  to 
an  accepted  scale,  tonality,  rhythm,  measure  and 
harmony. 


REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  are  the  logical  lines  of  musical  development? 

2.  On  the  basis  of  appeal  of  human  susceptibility,  what  has 
been  the  source  of  the  development  of  music? 

3.  Under  whose  control  was  Egyptian  music,  and  what  was 
the  result? 

4.  What  was  the  chief  use  of  music  in  ancient  Egypt? 


202  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


5.  What  evidence  have  we  that  harmony  was  known  among 
the  Egyptians? 

6.  What  was  the  place  of  music  among  the  ancient  Assyrians? 

7.  What  was  the  character  of  this  music? 

8.  As  compared  with  the  Egyptians,  what  was  the  Greek 
attitude  towards  music? 

9.  Who  was  the  father  of  mathematical  acoustics? 

10.  What  were  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  Greek  music? 

11.  What  were  the  Greek  ideas  of  the  place  and  value  of 
music? 

12.  What  was  the  usual  range  of  Greek  melodies? 

13.  Why  was  the  Greek  music  melodic  and  not  harmonic  in 
character  ? 

14.  What  was  the  part  played  by  Egypt  in  Greek  music? 

15.  On  what  were  the  Greek  scales  based? 

16.  How  were  the  scales  extended  beyond  the  original  tetra- 
chord? 

17.  How  did  the  Greek  scales  differ  from  our  own? 

18.  Which  of  their  scales  approached  our  own  and  what  was 
the  important  difference? 

19.  What  was  the  location  of  the  half  step  in  the  several  Greek 
scales? 

20.  What  was  the  effect  of  the  mese  or  dominant  note  in  a 
Greek  scale? 

21.  Why  was  the  Eydian  scale  considered  immoral  and 
lascivious? 


XV 


PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC,  CONTINUED 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  Assign  to  several  members  the  task 
of  collating  and  citing  the  Scripture  passages  referring  to  the 
various  instruments  used  by  the  Hebrews  and  to  the  musical 
organization  of  the  tabernacle  and  the  temple  at  different  periods. 

3.  Music  Among  the  Hebrews 

(a)  Patriarchal  Music.  While  we  hear  nothing  of  the 
use  of  music  in  the  time  of  the  patriarchs  from  Noah  to 
Jacob,  there  can  be  little  doubt  of  its  use  in  a  more  or 
less  private  way,  for  Laban  chided  Jacob  for  leaving 
secretly  and  depriving  him  of  the  privilege  of  sending 
him  away  “  with  mirth  and  with  songs,  with  tabret  and 
with  harp”  (Gen.  31:27).  As  the  families  were  small 
and  the  religious  ceremonies  very  simple  and  improvised, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  it  had  not  a  large  place.1 

( b )  The  Post-Egyptian  Era.  But  when  Israel  became 
a  nation  and  developed  a  system  of  worship,  music  im¬ 
mediately  appeared.  Moses  and  the  children  of  Israel 
singing  the  great  triumphant  ode  after  the  destruction  of 
the  Egyptian  army,  followed  by  the  women  with  an 
antiphonal  chorus  and  dances  led  by  Miriam,  indicates 
previous  organization  and  training.  Such  elaborate  mass 
singing  and  symbolic  movements  cannot  be  improvised. 
When  Moses  came  down  from  the  mount,  he  found  the 

1  “  But  it  must  not  be  expected  that,  as  an  art,  music  could  reach 
a  very  high  standard  amongst  nomadic  tribes,  whose  roof  was 
never  more  substantial  than  a  tent,  whose  temple  of  worship  was 
the  canopy  of  heaven.” — Stainer,  “  Music  of  the  Bible.” 

203 


Fig.  16.  The  Hebrew  Harp. 
(Kiuuor.) 


Fig.  17.  The  Small  Hebrew 
Trumpets.  (Keren.) 


Fig.  18.  Round  Hebrew  Drums  or 
Tambourines.  (Toph.) 


Fig  19.  The  Hebrew 
Sistrum.  (Mang- 
haughim.) 


Fig.  20.  Hebrew  Drums  of  Varied  Forms.  (Toph.) 

Hebrew  Musical  Instruments 


(204) 


PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


205 


people  singing  and  dancing  before  the  golden  calf,  as 
they  likely  had  done  before  the  image  of  Apis  in  the 
religious  ceremonies  of  the  Egyptians.  The  Chaldean 
instruments  probably  inherited  from  their  forefathers 
had  been  largely  increased  in  number  by  adopting  those 
of  Egyptians.  Their  vocal  music  doubtless  was  enriched 
from  the  same  source  during  their  thirteen  generations 
of  captivity  in  Egypt. 

After  the  distribution  of  the  Israelites,  following  the 
conquest  of  Canaan,  there  seemed  to  be  less  opportunity 
for  the  use  and  development  of  music.  Only  isolated 
reports  occur,  such  as  the  song  of  Deborah  and  Barak 
and  the  dancing  of  the  daughter  of  Jephtha  and  her  com¬ 
panions.  Yet  that  they  occur  at  all  shows  that  music 
was  privately  cultivated  to  some  extent  through  the  period 
of  the  Judges.  A  secular  occasion  for  music  and  danc¬ 
ing  was  the  triumph  accorded  David  and  Saul  after  the 
slaying  of  Goliath  and  the  defeat  of  the  Philistines. 

(c)  The  DavicLic  Era.  With  David  began  a  new  era 
in  the  history  of  Hebrew  music.  Not  only  was  he  a 
great  soloist  with  harp  and  voice,  and  the  writer  of  a 
great  number  of  psalms  that  became  the  nucleus  of  the 
national  Psalter,  but  he  reorganized  the  musical  service  of 
the  tabernacle  most  elaborately  with  leaders  of  song  and 
directors  of  the  several  chapels  of  the  great  orchestra 
of  divers  instruments, — stringed  instruments,  trumpets, 
flutes,  cymbals, — all  of  varied  design  and  power  and  tone 
colour.2  However,  it  must  be  remembered  that  to  do  this 

2  That  David  must  have  had  a  royal  band  of  singers  in  his  court 
seems  to  be  clearly  indicated  by  the  words  of  Barzillai  when  he 
refused  David’s  invitation  to  dwell  in  his  court.  Among  other 
reasons  he  gave,  he  said,  “  Can  I  hear  any  more  the  voice  of 
singing  men  and  singing  women?”  Solomon  seems  to  have  en¬ 
larged  the  musical  facilities  of  the  court,  for  in  Ecclesiastes  2:8 


206  THE  HISTOKY  OF  CHUKCH  MUSIC 


there  must  have  been  trained  singers  and  players,  and 
varied  instruments  already  in  existence.  This  “  ordi¬ 
nance  of  David,  King  of  Israel  ”  became  the  model  for 
all  future  generations,  like  the  Decree  of  Pope  Gregory 
in  later  ages. 

Solomon  elaborated  the  musical  ritual  and  made  music 
a  very  prominent  factor  in  the  dedication  of  his  temple. 
Indeed  the  immediate  preface  to  the  manifestation  of  the 
divine  presence  was  the  great  climacteric  outburst  of  the 
full  choir  and  orchestra. 

In  the  reign  of  Hezekiah,  after  a  long  period  of 
religious  declension  and  neglect  of  the  temple  service, 
there  was  a  restoration  of  the  splendour  of  the  temple 
music.  After  the  Captivity,  when  Nehemiah  and  Ezra 
rebuilt  the  city  and  the  temple,  there  was  another 
thorough  and  complete  musical  reorganization  “  after  the 
ordinance  of  David,  King  of  Israel.”  But  from  that 
time  on,  even  after  the  Herodian  rebuilding  of  the 
temple,  we  hear  little  of  the  use  of  music.  Undoubtedly 
it  existed,  but  not  as  a  notable  element  of  the  service. 

( d )  The  Musical  Instruments  of  the  Hebrews.  The 
musical  instruments  used  by  the  Hebrews  were  borrowed 
from  the  Assyrians  and  the  Egyptians  in  so  far  as  they 
were  not  a  heritage  from  the  patriarchal  age.  No  trace 
can  be  found  of  any  new  inventions  on  their  part.  The 
kinnor  (harp  or  lyre)  and  ugab  (pipe  or  flute),  spoken 
of  as  early  as  Jubal,  still  survive,  as  also  the  toph  (a 
small  drum  like  a  tambourine).  After  the  Exodus  there 
is  mention  of  a  number  of  instruments  of  undoubted 
Egyptian  origin;  the  shophar  (a  curved  tube  of  metal  or 
ram’s  horn)  ;  the  hazozerah  (a  long  silver  tube)  ;  the 

he  says,  “  I  got  me  men  singers  and  women  singers,  and  the 
delights  of  the  sons  of  men,  as  musical  instruments,  and  that  of 
all  sorts.” 


PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


207 


neb  el  (a  larger  kinnor,  somewhat  like  a  guitar)  ;  the  azor 
(another  form  of  the  nebel)  ;  the  chalil  (a  sort  of  oboe  or 
flageolet),  and  many  other  instruments,  including  a 
number  of  small  ones  of  the  percussion  type.3 

All  these  instruments  were  probably  rather  rude  in 
construction  and  elementary  in  musical  design,  much  like 
the  instruments  used  among  the  common  people  of  China. 
They  were  not  intended  to  make  music  in  the  modern 
sense,  but  to  mark  the  rhythm  and  make  a  noise  rich  in 
varied  tone  colour.  In  how  far  the  instrumental  accom¬ 
paniment  to  solo  and  mass  singing  actually  harmonized 
with  the  rude  melody  sung,  whether  it  followed  that 
melody  in  unison  and  octaves  or  even  fifths,  we  do  not 
know.  If  we  can  judge  from  current  savage  and  bar¬ 
baric  practice,  the  instruments  did  little  more  than  em¬ 
phasize  and  elaborate  the  rhythm  of  the  vocal  part  and 
follow  its  variations  of  force. 

( e )  The  Character  of  Hebrew  Music .  The  Hebrews 
were  not  a  distinctively  musical  people.4  They  had  no 

8  “  There  was  not  a  drum  to  be  found  from  Dan  to  Beersheba, 
nor  a  dulcimer  either;  and  flutes,  if  used  at  all,  were  very  rarely 
used.  The  only  instrument  that  attained  much  favour,  and  this 
was  the  indigenous  one,  was  the  harp,  which  should  more 
properly  be  described  as  a  lyre  than  a  harp,  since  it  was  a  small 
portable  instrument  which  the  player  carried  about  with  him 
wherever  he  went,  and  of  which  we  may  form  a  fair  notion  if 
we  remember  the  Rabbinical  tradition  that  David  used  to  hang 
his  on  a  nail  above  his  pillow  when  he  went  to  bed.  This  little 
lyre  was  the  great  instrument  in  Israel  and  the  reason  it  could 
be  so  was  that  the  music  of  the  Hebrews  was  in  every  sense  of 
the  word  a  vocal  music.  The  voice  transcended  and  outdid  the 
instrument  and  the  instrumental  development  stood  still.” — Row- 
botham,  “  The  History  of  Music.” 

4  “  The  Hebrews,  with  such  training,  contracted  blemishes  with 
their  excellencies.  The  former  were  few  in  comparison  with  the 
latter,  but  none  the  less  existent.  Their  weakness  lay  in  an 


Fig.  21.  Hebrew  Ham’s  Horn  Trumpets. 
(Shophar.) 


Fig.  23.  Hebrew  Silver  Trumpet. 
(Khatsotsrah.) 


Hebrew  Musical  Instruments 


(208) 


PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


209 


sense  of  its  mystery,  not  to  speak  of  its  divine  origin, 
such  as  one  finds  among  the  Egyptians,  the  Assyrians,  and 
the  Greeks.  One  gets  no  sense  of  magical  values,  or 
supernatural  power,  or  of  moral  or  immoral  influence 
upon  human  character.  It  is  simply  a  matter-of-fact 
means  of  creating  interest  in  feasts  and  merrymakings, 
in  military  movements,  in  triumphal  greetings,  and 
especially  in  religious  ceremonies.  It  was  second  only 
to  sacrifice  as  a  means  of  worshipping  Jehovah,  their 
King  as  well  as  their  God. 

One  of  the  most  characteristic  phases  of  Hebrew 
music  grew  out  of  the  parallelism  of  Hebrew  poetry,  its 
antiphonal  rendering.  From  Lamech  in  Genesis  to  the 
Magnificat  of  the  Virgin  this  literary  form  persisted. 
Miriam  and  her  maidens  sang  antiphonally  as  probably 
did  Deborah  and  Barak.  The  Priests  and  the  Levites 
sang  responsively  and  the  people  answered  the  temple 
choirs.  The  Christian  Church  borrowed  the  device  and 
in  turn  handed  it  down  through  the  ages  to  be  exploited 
in  our  own  day  by  leaders  of  gospel  songs  in  great  evan¬ 
gelistic  meetings. 

While  we  find  references  in  the  headings  of  some  of 
the  Psalms  (Ps.  22;  56;  69)  to  some  distinctive  melodies 
that  were  recognized  as  standards  and  orally  transmitted 
down  through  the  generations,  these  were  probably  little 
more  than  chants  subordinate  to  the  text  whose  rhythm 

utter  deadness  to  the  sensuous  and  artistic  side  of  life;  their 
excellence  consisted  in  exalting  its  spiritual  side  to  a  height  such 
as  we  shall  never  meet  with  again.  Thus,  unlike  the  Assyrians, 
the  beauty  of  whose  carvings  has  perhaps  never  been  surpassed, 
the  Hebrews  not  only  despised  the  art  of  sculpture,  but  accounted 
the  practice  of  it  illegal  and  irreligious.  Painting  fared  no  better 
with  them.  Architecture  was  so  poorly  represented  that  Jehovah’s 
tabernacle  was  for  centuries  a  tent  and  Solomon  had  to  hire  a 
foreigner  to  build  the  temple.” — Rowbotham,  “  History  of  Music.” 


210  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


they  followed.  They  probably  imitated  models  of  con¬ 
temporary  nations  in  being  mere  elaborations  of  the  ca¬ 
dences  natural  to  varied  emotions.  None  of  them  have 
come  down  to  us  in  any  form,  in  writing  or  orally. 

The  lack  of  any  system  of  notation,  the  decay  of  music 
in  the  temple  service  in  the  centuries  just  preceding  the 
coming  of  Christ,  the  catastrophal  end  of  the  temple  cere¬ 
monies  and  the  death  of  the  majority  of  the  fanatical 
priests  and  Levites  at  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and 
the  complete  dispersal  of  any  that  survived,  would  ac¬ 
count  for  the  annihilation  of  all  traces  of  this  temple 
music.  The  simpler  music  used  in  the  synagogues,  more 
popular  in  character,  may  have  been  handed  down  for 
some  generations,  but  no  doubt  succumbed  to  the  con¬ 
trolling  influence  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  people  among 
whom  they  lived  on  sufferance. 

If  the  tune  “  Leona,”  found  in  some  of  our  hymnals 
and  there  ascribed  to  a  Jewish  source,  is  really  Hebraic 
in  origin,  it  is  comparatively  modern,  as  it  is  harmoni¬ 
cally  conceived  and  modern  in  structure. 

Hebrew  music  was  effective,  like  other  music  of  the 
same  stage  of  culture,  because  of  its  rhythm  and  its 
overwhelming  noise.  Imagine  an  orchestra  of  four 
thousand  players  with  coarse,  noisy  instruments  and  the 
tumultuous  chorus  of  unnumbered  thousands  of  people 
as  they  shouted,  “  Praise  ye  the  Lord ;  for  he  is  good,  for 
his  mercy  endureth  forever.”  The  attack  on  the  nerves 
of  such  a  stupendous  rhythmical  noise  must  have  been 
overwhelming. 

4.  General  Statements  Regarding  Pre-Christian 

Music 

It  may  not  be  amiss  to  emphasize  some  outstanding 
characteristics  of  this  ancient  music. 


PRE-CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


211 


(a)  Religious  in  Character.  While  music  was  asso¬ 
ciated  with  all  great  public  assemblies  and  occasions,  it 
was  preeminently  religious  in  purpose  and  character.  It 
was  largely  developed  and  controlled  by  medicine  men, 
magicians  and  priests.  However  varied  in  moral  and 
spiritual  value  these  ultimate  religious  ends  may  have 
been,  the  music  was  always  adapted  to  secure  them. 

( b )  The  Artistic  Conception  of  Music.  There  was  no 
genuinely  artistic  conception  of  music  to  be  found  any¬ 
where  in  all  these  nations,  despite  the  high  general  civi¬ 
lization  developed  in  some  of  them,  except  in  the  later 
Grecian  age,  when  religion  had  become  decadent;  but 
even  that  tendency  was  totally  submerged  by  the  rise  of 
the  Christian  Church  with  its  new  emphasis  of  the 
supreme  place  of  religion. 

(c)  In  reviewing  the  music  of  these  early  nations,  and 
that  of  savages  as  well,  we  have  had  data,  meagre  though 
they  were,  on  its  public  or  social  side  alone.  In  the 
very  nature  of  things  there  could  be  no  survival  of 
music  of  an  individual  nature.  The  crooning  of  the 
women  over  their  little  ones  and  their  domestic  tasks,  the 
piping  of  the  shepherds  watching  over  their  flocks,  the 
mating  lyrics  of  the  young  people,  the  songs  of  the  single 
families  in  their  wilderness  or  rural  isolation,  must  have 
differed  from  the  music  of  the  temples  in  important  par¬ 
ticulars,  just  as  the  simple  and  melodious  religious  folk¬ 
songs  of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  sung  in  private  and  in  the 
smaller  rural  and  village  churches,  differed  from  the 
elaborate  cathedral  music  in  the  great  religious  centers. 

But  of  this  primitive  personal  music  we  have  no  record, 
and  yet,  the  human  musical  impulse  being  so  strong  and 
universal,  it  must  have  existed.  We  shall  find  later  that 
it  was  this  submerged  popular  music  which  furnished  the 
vital  impulse  and  the  raw  material  which  in  the  later 


212  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


centuries  of  the  Christian  Church  broke  the  religious 
domination  over  music  and  made  modern  artistic  music 
and  more  impressive  church  music  possible. 


REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  evidence  have  we  of  the  prevalence  of  music  in  the 
Patriarchal  Age? 

2.  What  proves  conclusively  the  influence  of  Egypt  on  the 
music  of  the  Hebrews? 

3.  What  was  the  state  of  music  under  the  Hebrew  judges? 

4.  What  indicates  a  wide  use  of  music  at  the  opening  of 
David's  reign? 

5.  What  were  David’s  great  contributions  to  musical  develop¬ 
ment  among  the  Hebrews? 

6.  How  did  David’s  organization  of  the  music  of  the  taber¬ 
nacle  affect  the  future  of  Hebrew  music? 

7.  Give  the  Hebrew  names  and  the  characteristics  of  the 
principal  instruments  used  among  the  Israelites. 

8.  What  characteristics  distinguished  Hebrew  music? 

9.  What  method  of  singing  developed  out  of  the  parallel¬ 
ism  of  Hebrew  lyrics? 

10.  Why  have  no  Hebrew  melodies  survived? 

11.  What  was  the  chief  purpose  of  pre-Christian  music? 

12.  What  modern  conception  of  music  was  entirely  absent? 

13.  Was  there  likely  any  type  of  music  in  existence  in  these 
early  nations  other  than  the  religious  or  the  public  ceremonies? 


XVI 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 

Supplementary  Reading:  Dickinson,  “  Music  in  the  Western 
Church,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Naumann,  “History  of 
Music,”  Cassell,  London;  Williams,  “The  Story  of  Notation,” 
Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Rowbotham,  “History  of  Music,” 
Bentley,  London. 

i.  Music  in  the  Apostolic  Age 

(a)  The  Affecting  Musical  Factors  in  the  Beginning. 
As  we  begin  the  study  of  the  music  of  the  Christian 
Church  in  its  beginnings,  we  find  the  following  funda¬ 
mental  factors: 

(1)  A  decadent  Jewish  religion,  the  strong  stream  of 
whose  early  life  was  being  dissipated  in  the  sands  of 
petty  rules  and  minute  ceremonial  observances.  Its  or¬ 
ganized  ecclesiastical  and  intellectual  activities  had  lost 
their  fundamental  sense  of  Jehovah  and  of  direct  obliga¬ 
tion  to  Him ;  consequently  its  music,  in  itself  rudimentary 
and  undeveloped,  had  become  mechanical  and  routinary, 
having  no  vital  source  of  sentiment  and  emotion. 

(2)  A  Grecian  paganism  whose  mythology  and  re¬ 
ligious  rites  no  longer  satisfied  the  philosophy  and  aesthet¬ 
ics  of  its  keenly  intellectual  people,  nor  maintained  its 
hold  upon  the  common  people;  but  whose  music  was 
theoretically  and  practically  developed  more  fully,  and 
had  a  broader  and  finer  expressiveness,  than  that  of  any 
contemporary  or  previous  nation. 

(3)  A  new  religious  movement,  strong  with  a  super¬ 
natural  vitality,  full  of  high  and  inspiring  conceptions 
and  ideas,  noble  with  ideals  far  beyond  any  known  before 
and  appealing  to  sentiments  and  aspirations  and  desires 
that  stirred  the  uttermost  depths  of  the  souls  of  men. 

213 


214  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


It  had  an  intellectually  satisfying  conception  of  a 
supreme  God,  righteous,  just,  pure,  merciful,  compas¬ 
sionate,  even  self-sacrificing.  He  was  represented  as 
descending  in  the  person  of  Jesus  Christ  to  human  form 
and  limitations  to  make  himself  comprehensible,  and  to 
save  a  fallen,  broken,  helpless,  hopeless  race  and  to  give 
it  the  victory,  not  only  over  sin  and  its  immediate  and 
ultimate  consequences,  but  over  death  itself,  and  to  supply 
an  assurance  of  transcendent  and  untrammelled  life 
beyond. 

Over  against  the  crushing  sense  of  sin  stood  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  uttermost  salvation.  In  contrast  with  human 
selfishness  appeared  the  divine  self-sacrifice  of  Calvary. 
For  this  stupendous  gamut  of  sentiment  and  emotion, 
there  was  an  abiding  demand  for  a  corresponding  musical 
expression. 

These  were  the  diverse  forces  which  were  certain  to 
come  into  corlflict,  not  only  in  doctrines  and  convictions, 
but  in  musical  expression  as  well.  It  measures  the  power 
of  the  new  faith  that  it  not  only  survived  the  strain,  but 
composited  and  transformed  the  opposing  forces  into 
sources  of  deeper  power  and  broader  appeal. 

( b )  The  Period  of  Transition  from  Hebrew  to  Greek. 
There  are  no  data,  or  at  least  only  traditional  ones,  re¬ 
garding  the  use  of  music  in  the  apostolic  age  beyond 
Paul’s  references  to  “  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual 
songs”  (Eph.  5:19  and  Col.  3:16).  These  establish 
the  use  of  music  in  the  meetings  of  the  early  disciples. 
What  the  character  of  that  music  was  we  can  only  sur¬ 
mise.  It  may  well  be  that  it  was  not  at  all  uniform,  that 
the  congregations  in  Jerusalem  and  elsewhere  in  Judea 
used  the  traditional  psalms  sanctioned  by  their  Master’s 
quotations  and  vocal  participation,  while  in  Greece,  in 
Grecian  Asia  Minor,  and  elsewhere  in  the  Roman  Empire, 


EAELY  CHEISTIAN  MUSIC 


215 


the  locally  current  melodies  and  style  of  music  were 
accepted,  just  as  the  Salvation  Army  uses  different  music 
in  England  and  America.1 

But  as  the  Jewish  part  of  the  Christian  Church  became 
more  and  more  subordinated  to  the  rapidly  spreading 
Gentile  part,  and  as  the  final  dispersion  of  the  Jews  broke 
up  the  very  foundations  of  the  Jewish  system  of  liturgy 
and  ceremonial,  the  Greek  musical  influence  must  have 
become  more  and  more  regnant.  The  books  of  the  New 
Testament,  with  the  possible  exception  of  the  original 
of  Matthew’s  Gospel,  were  written  in  Greek,  the  preach¬ 
ing  for  the  most  part  was  in  Greek,  and  a  little  later  all 
the  earliest  liturgies  were  in  Greek. 

The  new  life  of  the  Christian  faith  could  not  accept 
the  rigid  formalism  and  synagogal  routine  of  the  Phar¬ 
isaical  and  priestly  conventions  and  rules,  but  found  the 
greater  freedom  and  larger  expressiveness  of  the 
Grecian  music  more  practical  and  congenial.  In  the 
Christian  hymnody  and  music  were  combined  the  senti¬ 
ments  of  prayer  and  praise  of  the  Hebraic  liturgy  and  the 
flexibility,  adaptability,  and  expressiveness  of  the  Grecian 
music.  This  was  heightened  and  deepened  and  intensi¬ 
fied  by  the  new  Christian  hope,  by  the  new  joy  of  con¬ 
scious  salvation,  and  of  the  realization  of  age-long  divine 
promises  and  aspirations,  and  by  the  extraordinary  im- 

1  The  same  process  may  be  observed  among  the  congregations 
of  foreign  immigrants.  The  German  Methodists  and  German 
United  Brethren  in  the  early  and  middle  years  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  for  instance,  soon  adopted  the  American  spirituals, 
adapting  German  texts  to  them.  They  still  sang  the  German 
chorales,  but  as  the  decades  passed  American  hymn  tunes  dis¬ 
placed  them,  until  now,  after  little  more  than  three-quarters  of 
a  century,  there  is  little  typical  German  music  to  be  found  out¬ 
side  of  the  more  narrowly  liturgical  churches  presided  over  by 
pastors  born  and  trained  in  Germany. 


216  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


mediateness  of  the  communion  through  Jesus  Christ  with 
God,  no  longer  the  Jehovah  of  the  Jews  and  their  pros¬ 
elytes  alone,  but  the  Lord  of  all  nations  and  tribes. 
The  content, — the  sentiments,  the  thought, — was  essen¬ 
tially  Hebraic  in  spirit,  but  the  form  had  the  Grecian 
freedom. 

( c )  The  Radical  Change  in  the  Character  of  Worship. 
In  place  of  the  rite  and  ceremony  and  bloody  sacrifice, 
there  arose  spontaneously  the  meeting  for  prayer — spon¬ 
taneous,  extemporaneous,  individual,  prolonged  prayer 
(Acts  12:12).  There  were  meetings  for  testimony, 
mutual  exhortation  and  instruction,  and  for  speaking  in 
unknown  tongues,  as  well  as  for  the  simple  rites  of  bap¬ 
tism  and  the  Lord’s  Supper.  The  new  wine  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  faith  was  too  mighty  for  the  old  Hebrew  bottles. 

( d )  The  Like  Change  in  the  Music.  This  was  as  true 
of  the  music  as  of  the  service.  There  was  undoubtedly 
the  singing  of  the  Hebrew  “  psalms  ”  and  of  the 
“  hymns,”  or  canticles,  of  the  Old  Testament,  but  there 
was  also  the  use  of  new  Christian  “  spiritual  songs,”  born 
of  the  rapt  experiences  of  saints  either  alone,  or  in  the 
assembly  of  the  saints.  We  do  not  know  what  the 
“  glossolalia,”  or  “  the  gift  of  tongues,”  was,  but  think 
of  it  as  an  expression  of  high  ecstasy  for  which  human 
language  was  inadequate. 

When  such  inspiration  was  vouchsafed  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  fresh,  rhythmical,  lyrical  expressions  of  per¬ 
sonal  religious  experience,  and  even  of  freshly  realized 
religious  truth,  accompanied  by  appropriate  cadences  in 
the  style  to  which  they  were  accustomed,  could  hardly  be 
absent.  If  religious  feeling  during  the  Reformation,  dur¬ 
ing  the  Wesleyan  movement,  during  the  great  American 
revival  period  stretching  from  Jonathan  Edwards  to  D. 
L.  Moody  and  beyond,  each  produced  its  harvest  of 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


217 


sacred  song,  how  much  more  should  the  first  century  oi 
the  Christian  Church  have  been  prolific  of  “  spiritual 
songs ” ? 

The  need  for  “  spiritual  songs  ”  is  well  expressed  by 
Professor  Dickinson  in  his  “  Music  in  the  History  of  the 
Western  Church  ” :  “  The  worshippers  of  Christ  would 
not  remain  content  with  the  Hebrew  psalms,  for,  in 
spite  of  their  inspiring  and  edifying  character,  they  were 
not  concerned  with  the  facts  on  which  the  new  faith  was 
based,  except  as  they  might  be  interpreted  as  prefiguring 
the  later  dispensation.  Hymns  were  required  in  which 
Christ  was  directly  celebrated,  and  the  apprehension  of 
His  infinite  gifts  embodied  in  language  which  would  both 
fortify  the  believers  and  act  as  a  converting  agency.” 

( e )  The  Simplicity  of  the  Music.  Yet  there  was  little 
temptation  to  undue  elaboration  of  hymnody  or  music. 
The  very  spirituality  of  the  new  faith  made  ritual  or 
liturgy  superfluous  and  music  almost  unnecessary.  Sing¬ 
ing  (there  was  no  instrumental  accompaniment)  was 
little  more  than  a  means  of  expressing  in  a  practicable, 
social  way  the  common  faith  and  experience.  It  had  no 
divine  or  magical  power  in  itself. 

The  early  Christians  had  much  more  powerful  agencies 
at  their  command,  their  new  methods  of  expression, — 
personal  public  prayer,  testimony,  prophecy,  the  gift  of 
tongues.  There  was  no  ceremony  or  ritual  to  adorn.  In 
the  first  generation  the  intensity  of  the  content  of  amaz¬ 
ing  doctrine  and  depth  of  experience  ignored  the  idea 
of  form.  There  was  little  need  of  laying  stress  on  music. 

(/)  The  Lack  of  the  Lyric  Element  in  the  New  Testa¬ 
ment.  This  may  explain  why,  while  the  Old  Testament, 
even  outside  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  is  full  of  songs  of 
a  definitely  lyric  form,  there  is  little  or  nothing  of  the 
kind  in  the  New  Testament  or  in  the  writings  of  the  early 


218  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


fathers.  There  are  the  canticles  connected  with  the 
birth  of  Christ,  but  in  more  senses  than  one  they  are 
Hebraic  and  not  Christian.  There  are  passages  in  the 
epistles,  particularly  in  those  of  Paul,  that  are  poetical 
and  even  lyrical  in  spirit,  but  they  are  incidental  and  not 
in  definitely  lyrical  form.  The  great  choruses  of  the  Book 
of  Revelation  are  a  part  of  the  stupendous  symbolical 
panorama  and  not  independent  lyrics  to  be  sung  in  serv¬ 
ices  like  the  Psalms. 

( g )  The  Early  Spiritual  Songs  Were  Ephemeral . 
Whatever  may  have  been  the  number  or  the  general  use 
of  these  “  spiritual  songs,”  it  was  evidently  not  in  the 
divine  purpose  that  they  should  be  perpetuated.  They 
may  have  been  too  ecstatic,  too  hysterical,  too  intense  for 
the  use  of  the  churches  through  the  ages.  They  may 
have  lacked  the  necessary  literary  form  and  artistic  grace, 
being  born  among  the  more  or  less  illiterate  class  in 
which  Christianity  first  prospered.  Like  the  “  camp-meet¬ 
ing  ditties  ”  of  the  early  nineteenth  century  and  the 
majority  of  the  succeeding  gospel  songs  of  the  Ameri¬ 
can  Church,  they  may  have  temporarily  served  their  day 
and  generation  efficiently,  only  to  be  set  aside  and  for¬ 
gotten  as  the  conditions  and  needs  of  the  growing  Church 
changed  through  succeeding  generations. 

2.  Music  in  the  Patristic  Age 

(a)  The  Nature  of  Christian  Services.  As  we  have 
seen,  the  apostolic  church  apparently  laid  little  stress  on 
the  use  of  music.  The  purely  Jewish  congregations  con¬ 
tinued  the  synagogical  use  of  the  psalms,  in  a  responsive 
way  with  the  Hebrew  chants,  indeed  continued  the  syna¬ 
gogical  code  in  general,  adding  the  baptismal  formula,  the 
Lord’s  Prayer,  and  the  Lord’s  Supper.  The  Greek  con¬ 
gregations,  owing  to  the  considerable  Jewish  element  and 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


219 


to  the  sanction  of  their  Lord  in  song  and  quotation,  sang 
the  same  psalms,  but  probably  with  current  Greek  chants 
based  on  accepted  modes  already  somewhat  fully  organ¬ 
ized. 

( b )  The  Spiritual  Songs  Written  in  Greek.  Paul’s 
reference  to  “  spiritual  songs  ”  shows  there  were  new 
songs  in  vogue  among  the  Christians  to  which  Pliny  the 
Younger  may  have  referred  in  his  letter  to  the  Emperor 
Trajan  about  112  A.  d.  By  the  middle  of  the  third  cen¬ 
tury,  250  a.  d.,  Eusebius  reports  a  profusion  of  these 
songs  of  which  only  several  survive.  There  can  scarcely 
be  any  doubt  that  they  were  all  written  in  Greek  and 
sung  to  accepted  Greek  chants.  This  was  consistent  with 
their  practice  in  other  phases  of  church  life.  They 
adopted  Greek  meters  for  their  “  spiritual  songs.”  They 
based  their  architecture  on  prevalent  Greek  and  Roman 
models.  They  presently  accepted  pagan  customs,  cere¬ 
monies,  and  festivals  in  modified  and  spiritualized  forms. 

(c)  Discrimination  Among  Greek  Modes.  In  accept¬ 
ing  Greek  chants  and  modes,  they  used  great  discrimina¬ 
tion.  Certain  modes  were  found  better  adapted  to 
Christian  use  than  others — had  more  nobility  and  dignity. 
Other  modes  were  forbidden  as  too  secular  and  even 
wanton.  The  Greeks  themselves  recognized  the  differ¬ 
ence  as  we  have  seen.  That  the  Hebrew  chants  were 
finally  submerged  is  clear  from  the  full  ecclesiastical 
adoption  of  certain  Greek  modes  before  the  close  of  the 
fourth  century. 

(d)  Instruments  Not  Used.  The  danger  of  adopting 
unfitting  modes  and  melodies  was  all  the  less  that  they 
were  chiefly  used  in  instrumental  music  which  was  not 
allowed  by  the  Christians  in  public  or  in  private  life.  No 
mention  is  made  of  instruments  by  early  writers  of  the 
Church.  When  reference  was  made  to  them  later,  it  was 


220  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


with  denunciation.  Clement  of  Alexandria  says,  “  Only 
one  instrument  do  we  use,  viz.,  the  word  of  peace  where¬ 
with  we  honour  God,  no  longer  the  old  psaltery,  trumpet, 
drum,  and  flute.”  Later  Ambrose  chides  those  who  pre¬ 
ferred  the  lyre  and  psaltery  to  singing  hymns  and  psalms. 
Jerome  insists  that,  “A  Christian  maiden  ought  not  even 
to  know  what  a  lyre  or  flute  is,  or  what  it  is  used  for.” 
The  frivolousness  and  unholy  pagan  associations  con¬ 
nected  with  instrumental  music  in  that  decadent  age  had 
probably  much  to  do  with  this  denunciation  of  instru¬ 
ments  not  only  in  public  worship,  but  also  in  private  life. 

( e )  The  Development  of  a  Formal  Liturgy.  A  most 
important  change  that  occurred  in  the  immediately  suc¬ 
ceeding  centuries  was  the  development  of  a  formal  and 
elaborate  liturgy  connected  with  a  growing  emphasis  of 
the  priestly  class.  The  informal  spontaneous  meeting  of 
the  apostolic  age  gave  place  to  a  solemn  and  dignified 
ritual.  While  this  still  contained  Hebrew  elements,  there 
were  new  canticles  and  hymns  introduced  of  a  more 
definitely  Christian  character.  These  were 

(1)  “The  Gloria  in  Excelsis,”  often  called  “The 
Greater  Doxology  ”  to  distinguish  it  from  the  “  Gloria 
Patri.”  It  was  based  on  the  song  of  the  herald  angels  of 
Bethlehem.  Traces  are  found  of  it  early  in  the  second 
century. 

(2)  “  The  Gloria  Patri,”  known  as  “  The  Lesser  Dox¬ 
ology.”  The  first  part  of  this  hymn  was  the  prevalent 
doxology  of  the  whole  Christian  Church.  The  last  part 
which  emphasizes  the  eternity  of  Christ  was  added  in  the 
West  in  answer  to  the  Arian  heresy. 

(3)  “The  Trisagion,”  also  called  “The  Cherubical 
Hymn  ”  was  based  on  Isaiah  6 :  3  and  Revelation  4 :  8. 

(4)  “  The  Hallelujah  ”  which  was  a  short  antiphonal 
hymn,  the  officiating  priest  intoning  the  “  Praise  Ye  the 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


221 


Lord  ”  and  the  congregation  responding,  “  The  Lord’s 
name  be  praised.” 

(5)  “The  Benedicite,”  a  paraphrase  of  the  forty- 
eighth  Psalm. 

(6)  “  The  Nunc  Dimittis,”  based  on  the  salutation  to 
the  divine  Babe  by  the  aged  Simeon  (Luke  2:29). 

(7)  “  The  Magnificat,”  the  song  of  the  Virgin  Mother 
in  response  to  the  salutation  of  Elizabeth  (Luke  1 : 46). 

(8)  “  The  Te  Deum,”  or  “  Te  Deum  Laudamus,”  the 
Latin  version  based  on  a  more  ancient  Greek  original. 
The  triumphal  hymn  of  the  Christian  Church. 

(9)  “  The  Benedictus,”  the  song  of  the  priest  Zach- 
arias,  father  of  John  the  Baptist  on  the  birth  of  his  son. 

The  Hebraic,  respectively  Greek,  origin  of  each  is 
evident  enough  and  illustrates  the  two  lines  of  heritage 
of  the  hymnody,  and  undoubtedly  of  the  chants  of  the 
developing  Church. 

(/)  Antiphonal  Singing.  One  of  the  inheritances  from 
the  Hebrew  factor  in  the  development  of  the  music  of  the 
Church  was  antiphonal  singing,  for  which  the  parallelism 
of  the  psalms  gave  large  opportunity.  Pliny’s  letter,  al¬ 
ready  alluded  to,  describes  the  Christians  of  Bithynia  as¬ 
sembling  before  daylight  to  sing  hymns  of  praise  to 
Christ  alternately.  There  is  a  tradition  that  Ignatius,  the 
Bishop  of  Antioch,  in  the  second  century  introduced  this 
responsive  singing  into  the  churches  of  his  diocese,  be¬ 
cause  in  a  vision  he  heard  angels  singing  after  this  man¬ 
ner.  It  was  later  introduced  into  the  Western  Church 
and  so  became  an  integral  part  of  liturgical  services 
everywhere. 

(g)  Pedagogical  Use  of  Music.  Paul’s  phrase  “  teach¬ 
ing  and  admonishing  one  another  ”  in  connection  with 
“  psalms  and  hymns  and  spiritual  songs  ”  shows  that  he 
approved  their  use  for  propagandist  and  educational  pur- 


222  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


poses.  When  one  remembers  that  they  were  sung  as 
recitative  chants,  their  use  for  this  purpose  seems  very 
practical  and  efficient.  This  method  of  popular  teaching 
was  later  very  largely  and  effectively  employed  by  the 
heretical  sects  who  popularized  their  misleading  doctrines 
in  this  way. 

(h)  Two  Important  Reactions  from  Heretical  Hymns. 
This  led  to  two  important  reactions  on  the  part  of  the 
Church : 

(i)  The  gradual  abolition  of  independent  singing  by 
the  congregation  and  its  monopoly  by  choirs  in  order  to 
control  the  music  of  the  service  more  completely  and 
prevent  the  use  of  these  obnoxious  hymns,  and 

(2)  The  stimulus  it  gave  to  the  writing  of  orthodox 
hymns  for  the  informal  use  of  the  people. 

(i)  The  Elaboration  of  Liturgy  and  Music.  The  or¬ 
ganization  of  choirs  and  the  transfer  of  the  music  of  the 
Church  to  them  was  not  only  a  precaution  against  the 
lyrical  activities  of  the  heretics.  By  this  time  the  great 
centers  of  population  had  given  opportunity  for  large 
congregations  whose  worship  demanded  greater  and  more 
minute  organization  because  of  their  numbers.  More¬ 
over,  they  were  inevitably  influenced  by  the  elaborate  and 
spectacular  rituals  of  the  pagan  temples  all  about  them. 

The  sacerdotal  conceptions  of  this  pagan  organization 
and  the  autocratic  spirit  of  the  Roman  Empire  had  their 
influence  on  the  leaders  of  the  Christian  Church,  and  its 
organization  became  more  and  more  rigid  and  the  control 
of  the  priestly  class  over  the  Church  more  complete. 

The  musical  service  became  more  elaborate  as  the 
liturgies  developed  and  only  organized  and  trained  bodies 
of  singers  could  do  it  justice.  The  people  might  sing 
privately,  in  holy  pilgrimages  and  processions,  but  in  the 
public  service  they  were  limited  to  shouting  short  phrases 


EARLY  CHRISTIAN  MUSIC 


223 


in  response  to  the  priest  or  to  certain  passages  of  the 
music  of  the  choirs. 

(;)  The  Ambrosian  Reforms.  While  there  had  been 
a  general  acceptance  of  the  Greek  modes,  or  scales,  there 
had  been  no  uniformity  of  action  regarding  them.  The 
Church  was  spiead  over  a  vast  territory  and  communica¬ 
tion  between  different  regions  was  difficult.  Hence  there 
arose  different  usages  and  liturgies,  such  as  that  of  James 
in  Jerusalem  and  of  Mark  in  Alexandria.  Probably  there 
was  even  greater  variation  in  the  character  of  the  music 
used.  This  was  particularly  true  in  the  West. 

Towards  the  close  of  the  fourth  century,  Ambrose, 
Bishop  of  Milan,  undertook  a  reorganization  and  reforma¬ 
tion  of  the  music  in  his  diocese,  the  general  lines  of  which 
seem  to  have  been  generally  accepted  throughout  the 
West. 

The  details  of  the  ordering  of  the  music  are  not  clear, 
and  are  subject  to  much  dispute.  He  probably  intro¬ 
duced  the  Eastern  manner  of  antiphonal  singing.  New 
scales,  based  upon  the  four  principal  Greek  modes,  but 
simplified  to  meet  the  limited  musical  powers  of  his  sing¬ 
ers,  were  brought  into  use.  The  four  modes  selected  and 
modified  were  the  more  dignified  scales  of  the  Greeks, 
and  which  were  deemed  more  fitting  for  religious  uses. 
The  other  modes  were  used  in  heathen  temples  and  the¬ 
atres,  but  were  forbidden  to  Christians.  That  the  music 
so  modified  was  more  melodic  and  more  impassioned  and 
emotional  than  elsewhere 2 — as  in  Alexandria,  for  in- 


*  An  Ambrosian  Melody. 


S> - T| 

ITS-  ^  ^  _ 

^  r  \  "  I  i 

r  r 

1  [  |  |jpf 

- - 

224  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


stance,  where  under  Athanasius  the  psalms  were  rendered 
in  a  semi-musical  recitation,  to  use  Augustine’s  phrase, 
“  more  speaking  than  singing,” — seems  to  be  indicated  by 
the  report  of  Augustine :  “  How  I  wept  at  the  hymns  and 
canticles,  pierced  to  the  quick  by  the  voices  of  thy 
melodious  church !  Those  voices  flowed  into  my  ears, 
and  the  truth  distilled  into  my  heart,  and  thence  there 
streamed  forth  a  devout  emotion,  and  my  tears  ran  down, 
and  happy  was  I  therein.”  (Confessions,  Book  IX, 
Chapter  6.) 

The  changes  made  by  Ambrose  may  have  been  local 
and  their  general  importance  may  have  been  greatly  ex¬ 
aggerated  by  historians,  because  of  this  glowing,  rhetor¬ 
ical  description  of  the  perfervid  Augustine. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  three  fundamental  factors  present  themselves  at  the 
beginning  of  the  Christian  Church? 

2.  How  were  the  Hebrew  musical  elements  submerged  by 
the  Greek? 

3.  What  radical  change  was  there  in  the  form  of  worship 
as  compared  with  the  Jewish? 

4.  Why  was  the  music  necessarily  simple? 

5.  How  does  the  New  Testament  compare  with  the  Old  as 
regards  the  lyrical  element? 

6.  Why  have  not  the  “  spiritual  songs  ”  of  the  early  Church 
survived? 

7.  What  were  the  characteristics  of  the  church  music  of  the 
Patristic  Age? 

8.  In  the  development  of  the  liturgy  what  new  canticles 
appeared? 

9.  What  method  of  singing  passed  over  from  the  Hebrew  to 
the  Christian  Church? 

10.  What  important  reactions  grew  out  of  the  heretical  prop¬ 
agandist  hymns? 

11.  What  important  influences  contributed  to  the  development 
of  an  elaborate  liturgy? 

12.  What  were  the  Ambrosian  reforms? 


XVII 


CHURCH  MUSIC  UNDER  PAPAL  AUSPICES 


Class  Room  Suggestions:  If  it  is  possible  to  arrange  to  take 
the  class  to  a  Roman  Catholic  service  where  the  Gregorian 
chants  and  the  Mediaeval  masses  and  motets  are  used,  it  will 
give  a  more  vivid  realization  of  the  music  discussed  in  this  and 
the  following  chapter  than  can  be  secured  in  any  other  way. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Grove,  “  Dictionary  of  Music  and 
Musicians,”  Art.  “Gregorian  Music”  and  “Gregorian  Tones” 
and  “Plain  Song,”  Presser,  Phila. ;  Rowbotham,  “History  of 
Music,”  Bentley,  London;  Naumann,  “  History  of  Music,”  Cassell, 
London ;  Dickinson,  “  Music  in  the  Western  Church,”  Scribner’s 
Sons,  New  York. 

1.  Early  Papal  Efforts  at  Progress  in  Church  Music. 
It  may  well  be  that  Augustine’s  reference  to  the  work  of 
Ambrose  is  a  mere  chance  glimpse  at  the  local  musical 
activities  going  on  all  over  the  Church  indicating  general 
progress  in  an  organized  way.  Other  glimpses  are  vouch¬ 
safed  us.  Pope  Celestine  established  antiphonal  psalm¬ 
ody,  like  that  introduced  by  Ambrose  in  Milan,  during  his 
reign  (422-432).  The  papal  choir  was  organized  about 
this  time.  Pope  Leo  I  established  a  community  of  monks 
who  had  charge  of  the  canonical  hours. 

In  580  some  Benedictine  monks  whose  monastery  had 
been  destroyed  by  the  Lombards  were  assigned  by  Pope 
Pelagius  to  the  musical  services  and  provided  singers  for 
the  papal  chapel.  A  school  for  boys  was  organized  in 
connection  with  this  college  of  men  singers,  who  were 
recognized  as  subdeacons,  where  singers  were  trained  for 
the  pope’s  choir  and  given  instruction  in  other  branches. 

2.  The  Gregorian  Reforms  and  Organisation  of 
Music.  It  will  be  seen  that  it  is  not  likely  that  Pope 
Gregory  the  Great  (590-604)  had  initiated  all  the  im-* 

225 


226  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


provements  associated  with  his  name,  but  that  he  prob¬ 
ably  simply  organized  and  fixed  the  details  of  progress 
made  during  the  centuries  preceding  him  of  which  we 
have  so  few  records. 

During  his  administration  the  accepted  hymns  of  the 
Church  were  probably  revised  and  certainly  officially  fixed 
in  form.  The  increase  of  the  scales  in  number  and  ex¬ 
tent  and  the  formulation  and  fixing  of  their  several  series 
of  steps  and  half  steps  were  officially  sanctioned  and  made 
obligatory.  These  scales  were  known  as  the  “  Gregorian 
tones  ”  and  controlled  the  music  of  the  Church  through 
the  ages,  even  yet  being  the  norm  of  Catholic  ritual  music 
and  recognized  by  ultra-liturgical  elements  in  other  litur¬ 
gical  churches. 

The  liturgy,  having  been  completed  just  before  or 
during  the  early  years  of  his  reign,  was  given  a  musical 
setting  throughout,  in  the  form  of  liturgic  chants  called 
the  Antiphonary  of  St.  Gregory.  This  setting  was  made 
as  obligatory  as  the  liturgy  itself,  thus  compelling  uni¬ 
formity  of  ritual  and  music  throughout  the  Western 
Church.  He  founded,  or  more  likely  extended,  the  music 
school  in  Rome  which,  through  the  trained  singers  sent 
out  to  all  the  great  religious  centers,  helped  to  unify  and 
fix  the  musical  usages  of  the  entire  Church. 

The  work  of  Ambrose  at  Milan  was  officially  limited 
by  his  diocese  and  his  influence  outside  was  moral,  not 
ecclesiastical.  Even  aside  from  his  great,  masterful  per¬ 
sonality,  Gregory’s  authority  was  world  wide  and  pre¬ 
eminently  official  and  his  improvements  in  church  music, 
or  his  sanctioning  and  authorizing  for  all  the  Church  the 
improvements  locally  made  in  Milan,  Rome  and  else¬ 
where,  had  immediate  acceptance  and  implicit  obedience, 
and  formulated  and  fixed  the  liturgic  music  of  the  whole 
Western  Church. 


CHURCH  MUSIC  UNDER  PAPAL  AUSPICES  227 


3.  The  Gregorian  System.  The  Gregorian  system  of 
church  music,  therefore,  is  exceedingly  important  and  its 
characteristics  should  be  kept  well  in  mind. 

(u)  It  is  based  on  eight  modes,  originally  Greek,  four 
with  the  dominant  note,  or  mese,  on  the  first  tone  of  the 
scale,  called  authentic,  and  four  with  the  dominant  note 
on  the  fourth  tone  of  the  scale,  called  plagal.1 

The  following  modern  notation  of  these  Gregorian 


scales  will  make  them  clear. 

Authentic 


T - 

IL 

V 

J  si  <3  £>v. 

Z.i 

• 

It  will  be  noticed  that  the 


Plagal 


Hypodorian  v 


-CV 

/•  S3<r?f> 

S  S3  ™  G 

Hypophrygian  _ 

__  _ /n  _  rJ 

J*  S3  & 

s  sy  r?  G 

Hypolydian  >  ^ 

sD  ^  ■■ 

^3-  ~s3 

& 

Hypomixolydian 

<pv  •  . sy  ^ 

Tl-  s?  <T3  & 

plagal  scales  begin  on  the 


1  The  important  note  in  the  authentic  scale  is  the  first ;  in  the 
plagal  it  is  the  fourth,  the  same  as  the  first  of  the  former.  The 
plagal  scale,  therefore,  moves  upward  to  the  fourth,  while  the 
authentic  returns  to  the  first  note,  having  the  character  of  rest. 
Ambrose  expresses  it  in  the  following  rather  fanciful  rhetoric: 
“  Without  requiring  aid.  the  authentic  unites  with  the  plagal  at 
its  middle  or  fourth  tone,  representing,  as  it  were,  self-relying 
man;  whilst  the  plagal,  in  endeavouring  to  reach  its  authentic 
tone,  has  the  character  of  dependent  woman,” — See  Naumann,  pp. 
187-188  for  sample  Gregorian  melodies. 


228  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


fourth  below  the  first  tone  of  their  respective  authentic 
scales.  This  brought  down  the  range  of  the  melody. 

( b )  The  Gregorian  chant  differed  from  the  Ambrosian 
in  that  it  was  no  longer  recited,  nor  controlled  by  the 
quantity  of  the  vowels  in  the  syllables,  but  took  the  form 
of  continuous  melodies  with  tones  of  practically  equal 
length.2 

( c )  These  chants  had  no  independent  rhythm  except 
such  as  arose  from  the  natural  rhythm  of  the  text.  The 
effect  of  rhythm,  so  emphasized  in  the  music  of  the 
ancient  peoples,  was  no  longer  permitted.  They  had  no 
form  in  the  modern  sense,  their  length  and  relation  of 
parts  depending  entirely  on  the  text. 

( d )  There  was  no  harmony  connected  with  them  such 
as  is  found  associated  with  the  chants  contained  in  our 
hymnals.  They  were  unisonal,  or  homophonic,  all  voices 
taking  the  same  tones. 

( e )  They  were  vocal  only,  there  being  no  instrumental 
accompaniment  of  any  kind.  As  the  range  of  the  Grego¬ 
rian  melodies  never  exceeded  an  octave  and  as  the  plagal 
modes  were  a  fourth  lower  than  the  authentic,  it  will  be 
seen  that  there  was  no  vocal  strain. 

(/)  The  conception  of  church  music  underlying  the 
Gregorian  system  is  sedative  and  calming.  The  stimulat¬ 
ing,  exciting  character  of  the  earlier  pagan  music  was 
repudiated.  The  effects  the  church  fathers  sought  were 
to  grow  out  of  the  cooperation  with  a  worshipful,  im¬ 
pressive,  spiritual  liturgy  of  quiet,  dignified,  awe-inspiring 
sounds  of  no  particular  distinctiveness  or  pronounced 
character,  lest  they  distract  the  attention  from  the  spiri¬ 
tual  purpose  in  view.  There  was  no  definite  physical 

2  With  the  development  of  music  through  the  centuries  and  its 
consequent  elaboration,  this  equality  of  tone  lengths  gave  place 
to  more  complicated  melodies. 


CHUBCH  MUSIC  UNDER  PAPAL  AUSPICES  229 


appeal  in  it.  It  calmed  the  physical  in  order  to  stimulate 
the  spiritual  suggestiveness.  While  there  was  a  certain 
jubilance  in  the  singing  of  such  hymns  as  the  “  Te 
Deum,”  it  was  rendered  with  a  noble  restraint  based  on 
an  awful  sense  of  the  presence  of  the  Almighty.  The 
effect  of  its  elevated,  inspiring  passages  was  modified  by 
the  introduction  of  passages  contemplating  the  sacrifice 
of  Christ  or  expressing  the  profound  needs  of  the  soul.3 

( g )  These  chants  were  studied  with  the  minutest  care. 
Nothing  was  left  to  spontaneous  impulse  or  individual 
feeling.  Every  phrase,  every  nuance,  every  shading  of 
tone  by  priest  or  choir  was  studied  and  officially  pre¬ 
scribed.  The  system  was  rigid,  inflexible,  no  doubt  often 
sheerly  mechanical,  but  was  none  the  less  a  very  triumph 
of  the  adaptation  of  means  to  a  clearly  conceived  end, — 
the  expression  and  spiritual  deepening  of  worship.  The 
other  purposes  of  the  public  service, — inspiration,  educa¬ 
tion,  evangelization, — all  were  ignored. 

4.  The  Development  of  Musical  Notation 

(a)  The  Lack  of  Adequate  Notation  Felt.  One  of  the 
astonishing  phases  of  the  creation  of  this  system,  whether 
by  gradual  growth  or  by  deliberate  and  conscious  effort, 
is  that  there  was  no  musical  notation  upon  which  to  base 
it.  The  complaint  of  Isadore,  the  contemporary  of 
Gregory,  makes  the  difficulty  plain :  “  Unless  sounds  are 
retained  in  the  memory,  they  perish  because  they  cannot 
be  written.”  All  this  treasury  of  chants,  ordered  and 

3  Mendelssohn  had  no  great  admiration  for  the  Gregorian  Plain 
Song.  He  writes  in  1831  from  Rome :  “  It  does  irritate  me  to 
hear  such  sacred  and  touching  words  sung  to  such  insignificant, 
dull  music.  They  say  it  is  canto  fermo,  Gregorian,  etc.  No  mat¬ 
ter.  If  at  that  period  there  was  neither  the  feeling  nor  the 
capacity  to  write  in  a  different  style,  at  all  events  we  have  now 
the  power  to  do  so.” 


230  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


classified,  with  all  the  established  phrasing  and  regulation 
of  tone  had  to  be  orally  transmitted  and  made  permanent 
in  human  memory  alone. 

The  magnitude  of  the  task  of  developing  such  a  work 
as  Gregory’s  Antiphonary  without  the  help  of  notation  in 
seizing  happy  phrases  of  melody,  as  they  rose  in  the 
mind  of  the  monkish  musician  and  fixing  them  once  for 
all  in  the  written  character,  can  be  comprehended  by  the 
composer  alone.  Then  to  hand  over  to  contemporary 
churches  and  to  unborn  generations  this  musical  liturgy 
without  error  or  irresponsible  change  on  the  basis  of 
memory  alone  was  another  extraordinary  feat.  The  only 
explanation  of  this  lies  in  the  fact  that  special  orders  of 
monks  were  intrusted  with  the  preservation,  singing,  and 
teaching  of  these  chants. 

( b )  Lack  of  Notation  Crippled  Musical  Progress.  But 
so  long  as  there  was  no  notation,  no  visual  aid  to  the 
musical  thinker,  there  could  be  but  little  development  in 
musical  art.  After  all,  these  chants  were  one  part  mu¬ 
sical  compositions,  mostly  very  short  and  very  simple. 
Just  as  words  make  consecutive  thinking  possible,  so 
musical  notation  was  necessary  to  extensive  musical  com¬ 
position.  It  was  not  the  lack  of  musical  ability  that  was 
wanting  for  the  composition  of  the  larger  forms  of 
music,  but  the  lack  of  a  definite  method  of  expression  for 
the  thinking  as  well  as  the  writing  out  of  music. 

(c)  Early  Efforts  at  Notation.  The  impulse  to  create 
a  musical  notation  was  felt  in  all  ages.  As  early  as  2700 
b.  c.  the  Chinese  represented  the  notes  of  their  scale  by 
signs  somewhat  like  those  used  in  the  printed  characters 
they  now  use.  The  Hindoos  used  Sanscrit  characters  in 
the  same  way.  The  Persians  used  a  staff  of  nine  lines 
each  of  a  different  colour. 

The  Greeks  developed  a  very  complicated  system  of 


CHURCH  MUSIC  UNDER  PAPAL  AUSPICES  231 


notation  based  on  the  letters  of  their  alphabet  which  were 
inverted  or  modified  in  various  ways  to  express  time 
values  and  rests,  varying  for  vocal  and  instrumental 
music.  They  had  no  less  than  seventy  musical  signs  for 
voice  and  instrument.  Some  writers  claim  they  had  1,620 
signs.  The  Romans  used  the  first  fifteen  letters  of  their 
alphabet  following  the  Greeks  very  largely.  In  the  sixth 
century,  church  musicians  reduced  the  number  of  letters 
to  seven,  the  number  of  tones  in  the  octave. 

( d )  The  System  of  Neumes.  The  need  of  written 
music  was  so  emphasized  by  the  effort  to  transmit  the 
Gregorian  musical  liturgy  that  a  series  of  musical  signs 
somewhat  like  shorthand  characters  were  invented  called 
neumes  which  represented  not  single  notes,  but  groups  of 
sounds,  somewhat  like  the  turn  (6^)  and  the  trill  (/w) 
in  modern  use.  There  were  many  of  these  in  use,  but 
the  meaning  of  them  has  largely  been  lost.4 

( e )  The  Beginnings  of  the  Staff.  The  neumes  seem 
not  to  have  given  any  idea  of  absolute  pitch  and  so  some 


4  Neumes. 


J  tow/')  *  1 1  /  J  /  II  j1  J 

Lcttrcs. 

flj  t  gu  (IT  efgfd  <1  g  g  lig  hi  h  fck  hg  cf 

Notation  du  tremcme  siedc. 


if  fi 

— ^ — ism* — r — - 

■  9m - "tfB 

*  *  fr  □  \  -  |  ffl® 

Notation  modernc. 

- n  n  eT?i of?  O  ^  -0*77 — ■ 

Neumes,  Letters,  Notes  of  Thirteenth  Century  and 
Modern  Notation. 


232  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


one  introduced  a  line  to  fix  an  established  pitch  above 
and  below  which  the  neumes  were  placed  in  a  position 
indicating  the  relative  pitch  to  a  fairly  clear  degree  and 
so  gave  the  fundamental  suggestion  for  our  modern  staff : 
A  red  line  came  first  denoting  the  pitch  of  F  below  middle 
C.  Then  the  second  line  was  yellow  locating  middle  C. 

Colour  not  always  being  at  hand,  the  lines  were  drawn 
in  black 6  and  the  letters  F  and  C  written  at  the  beginning 
of  the  lines.  This  later  gave  rise  to  the  F  clef  and  the  C 
clef  in  various  positions  on  the  staff,  which  still  survive 
in  instrumental  music.  A  second  line  to  make  the  rela¬ 
tive  pitch  even  more  certain  naturally  followed.  In  this 
way  the  mere  pitches  of  the  several  tones  of  the  melody 
could  be  fairly  well  indicated  as  the  range  of  the  chants 
rarely  exceeded  the  octave. 

(/)  The  Further  Development  of  the  Staff.  Very 
logically  and  naturally  if  two  lines  were  clearer  than  one, 
then  three  would  be  better  than  two,  and  four  than  three. 
There  was  a  good  deal  of  experimentation  with  different 
numbers  of  lines.  Hucbald  of  Saint  Amand,  Flanders,  in 
930  used  seven  lines  and  wrote  the  syllables  of  the  chant 
between  them  to  indicate  their  varied  pitch,  not  using  the 

S  .  es 

T - - - - — • 

rj.  tris  sempiturmus  \ 

lines  at  all.  ? - - was  his 

s  _ 

T  Tu  us 


equivalent  for  our 


-<5> - & - <S> - <5> - (5>- 


-£2_ 


jQ- 


-£2. 


Tu  pa  -  tris  sem  -  pi  -  tur  -  mus  es  fi  -  li  -  us. 


ml- 1  ♦  I'1 » 1 7 1 7-  .'i  ?■ 

/\  u*  «■  >’O0 


nujN  j*ttcrup 


Neume  Notation,  Period  of  Guido. 


CHURCH  MUSIC  UNDER  PAPAL  AUSPICES  233 


It  remained  for  Guido  Arentino  to  sum  up  the  results 
of  all  these  varied  attempts  in  a  four  line  staff  using  both 
lines  and  spaces  to  indicate  pitch.  He  was  the  father  of 
the  sol-fa  system,  having  taken  the  opening  syllables  of 
each  line  of  the  hymn  to  St.  John  which  happened  to  fall 
on  successively  higher  notes  as  a  mnemonic  device. 

—  <g  ■  ^  g>'--  &  & — fcg - (g - — - & - <2.-0. - ^ 

UT  que  -  ant  lax  -  is  re  -  so  -  na  -  re  fi  -  bris 

<2-=^*-  ■  {2. - gy— -  a..-. yrj— ■& — j - -  —  -  Ig> — <S>— ^ 

mi  -  ra  ges  -  to  -  rum  fa  -  mu  -  li  tu  -  o  -  rum. 

gp^TL.:ia.  ■■ 

sol  ve  pol  -  lu  -  ti  la  -  bi  -  ri  ve  -  a  -  turn, 

„ . EEME$ 

Sane  -  te  Jo  -  an  -  nes. 

Ut,  re,  mi,  fa,  sol,  la.  The  si  or  ti  was  added  later.  In 
most  countries  the  ut  has  been  displaced  by  the  vocally 
more  practical  do.  As  the  notation  became  more  and 
more  definite  the  neumes,  representing  groups  of  notes  in 
shorthand  fashion,  lost  their  value  and  were  abandoned 
while  square  or  lozenge  shaped  characters  were  used  to 
indicate  individual  tones.  These  were  later  made  open 
instead  of  solid. 

Further  details  for  time  values,  rests,  clefs,  the  five 
lines,  the  added  lines  were  introduced  from  time  to  time 
until  our  present  elaborate  musical  notation  became  fixed. 
Even  within  recent  memory,  efforts  have  been  made,  such 
as  the  three  line  staff,  each  line  representing  an  octave, 
the  tones  of  each  octave  being  indicated  on  its  individual 
line  by  means  of  the  numerals  one  to  seven,  used  in  the 
public  schools  of  Germany  a  century  ago.  The  shaped 


234  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


or  buckwheat  notes,  which  were  very  popular  in  America 
three-quarters  of  a  century  ago  and  are  yet  used  in  some 
parts  of  the  South,  and  the  Tonic  Sol-fa  system  of  Dr. 
Cur  wen,  still  in  popular  use  in  England,  chiefly  in  Non¬ 
conformist  circles,  have  been  widely  used. 

5.  The  Introduction  of  the  Gregorian  Liturgy 

and  Music 

The  main  lines  of  the  Roman  liturgy  and  its  music  had 
been  formulated  and  fixed  by  the  end  of  the  sixth  century. 
The  musical  energies  of  the  Church  now  spent  themselves 
in  establishing  it  throughout  the  Church,  displacing  an¬ 
tagonizing  local  usages,  especially  the  Ambrosian,  which 
lingered  in  Lombardy  of  which  Milan  was  the  capital. 
The  partizan  feeling  so  aroused,  and  the  necessity  of 
clear  formulation  for  teaching,  combined  with  the  papal 
self-assertion  to  crystallize  and  fix  it,  like  the  temple 
music  among  the  Egyptians. 

Cantors  went  out  from  Roman  singing  schools  into 
great  and  influential  monasteries  and  helped  in  the  or¬ 
ganization  of  new  schools  in  new  missionary  territory, 
everywhere  singing  and  teaching  the  Roman  chants.  The 
numerous  Gregorian  missionaries  among  the  heathen  and 
their  successors  were  musically  trained  and  adept  in  sing¬ 
ing  the  Gregorian  chants. 

Charlemagne,  the  great  King  of  the  Franks  (768-814), 
a  loyal  adherent  of  the  Roman  hierarchy,  and  accepting 
all  its  teachings  and  usages,  included  their  music  in  his 
interests,®  sent  his  singers  to  Rome  for  instruction,  and 

®  Charlemagne,  after  conquering  Desiderius,  King  of  bombardy, 
the  protagonist  of  the  Ambrosian  system  still  used  in  the 
churches  of  Milan,  destroyed  every  copy  of  the  Ambrosian  chant 
and  hymn-books  that  he  could  find.  Clergy  and  others,  resist¬ 
ing  this  extirpation  of  the  Ambrosian  system,  were  put  to  the 
sword ! 


CHTJEOH  MUSIC  UNDER  PAPAL  AUSPICES  235 


secured  competent  singers  to  teach  in  prominent  mon¬ 
asteries  and  cathedral  choirs  throughout  his  dominions. 
He  also  established  great  singing  schools  at  Metz  and 
Soissons.  Boniface,  the  Anglo-Saxon  monk,  the  leading 
missionary  to  the  Germans,  taught  the  Roman  chants  to 
his  Thuringian  and  Hessian  converts. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  were  the  musical  activities  of  the  early  popes? 

2.  On  what  lines  did  the  Gregorian  reforms  proceed? 

3.  Give  an  outline  of  the  Gregorian  system. 

4.  What  lack  made  the  development  and  propagation  of  the 
Gregorian  system  a  stupendous  feat,  and  why? 

5.  How  did  the  lack  of  an  adequate  system  of  notation 
cripple  musical  progress? 

6.  What  early  systems  do  we  find  in  use? 

7.  What  were  the  neumes? 

8.  What  was  the  beginning  of  the  staff? 

9.  What  monks  are  credited  with  valuable  suggestions  in  the 
development  of  notation? 

10.  Who  first  used  syllables  to  indicate  relative  pitch? 

11.  What  efforts  have  been  made  during  the  last  century  to 
simplify  the  present  system? 

12.  How  was  the  use  of  the  Gregorian  system  made  universal 
in  the  Western  Church? 


XVIII 

MEDI/EVAL  CHURCH  MUSIC 

Supplementary  Reading:  “Oxford  History  of  Music,”  Vol.  I 
&  II,  Clarendon  Press,  Oxford;  Dickinson,  “Music  in  the  West¬ 
ern  Church,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Naumann,  “History 
of  Music,”  Cassell,  London ;  Chappell,  “  History  of  Music,” 
Chappell,  London;  Parry,  “The  Art  of  Music,”  Appleton,  New 
York;  Lavignac,  “Music  and  Musicians,”  Henry  Holt,  New 
York;  Grove,  “Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians,”  Arts. 
“  Madrigal,”  “  Mass  ”  and  “  Polyphonia,”  Presser,  Phila. ;  Row- 
botham,  “  History  of  Music,”  Bentley,  London ;  Baltzell, 
“  History  of  Music,”  Presser,  Phila. 

i.  The  Age  of  Musical  Apprenticeship 

While  the  first  millennium  of  the  Christian  era  drew 
to  its  close,  bringing  foreboding  to  those  afflicted  with  the 
superstition  of  mystical  mathematics,  signs  of  musical 
progress  began  to  appear,  not  in  Rome,  rigid  with  devo¬ 
tion  to  the  formulas  of  the  past,  but  in  the  North,  espe¬ 
cially  in  northern  France  and  in  Flanders. 

(a)  The  Organum.  Hucbald  (840-930),  a  Flemish 
monk  of  great  musical  enthusiasm,  whom  we  have  seen 
busy  in  experimentation  in  musical  notation,  evidently 
wearied  of  the  monotony  of  unisonal  chanting  and  in¬ 
troduced  the  custom  of  adding  voices  following  the  mel¬ 
ody  in  fifths  and  fourths  below.  He  probably  noticed  the 
spontaneous  instinct  of  singers  of  low  voices  in  singing 
the  melody  a  fifth  or  a  fourth  below.  This  custom  was 
called  “  organum.” 


Example  of  HucbalcPs  “Organum  ” 


236 


MEDIAEVAL  CHUECH  MUSIC 


237 


This  he  called  organum,  or  diaphony ,  although  “  in  our 
time  the  word  ‘  cacophony  ’  would  seem  more  appro¬ 
priate,”  as  Lavignac  suggests.1 2 

Modern  ears,  accustomed  to  the  progression  of  chords 
along  lines  of  clear  relations  between  them,  find  consecu¬ 
tive  fifths,  and  even  consecutive  fourths,  very  offensive, 
because  they  suggest  the  progression  of  unrelated  chords. 

Hucbald  also  evidently  took  the  growling  of  one  con¬ 
tinuous  note,  by  persons  who  had  no  greater  range,  as  a 
foundation  and  so  anticipated  our  organ  point. 


While  the  effect  was  inharmonious  and  rude,  not  to  say 
barbaric,  it  was  the  germinal  idea  of  our  harmonic  sys¬ 
tem.2 


1  Lavignac,  “  Music  and  Musicians.” 

2  “  It  also  happens  that  the  human  mind  is  so  slow  to  develop 
any  understanding  of  the  effects  of  harmony,  that  men  only 
learned  to  endure  even  infinitesimally  discordant  chords  by 
slow  degrees.  The  combination  in  which  there  is  the  least  ele¬ 


ment  of  discordance 


after  the  octave  is  the  fifth, 


. _ 

t. — & - ■  ■ 

If 

• 

z 

and  after  that  the  fourth, 


and  these  two  were  the 


238  THE  HISTORY  OP  CHUBCH  MUSIC 


Hucbald  having  blazed  the  path,  other  musicians  pro¬ 
duced  other  combinations  which  were  called  organum 
profanum,  as  they  had  no  ecclesiastical  sanction.  They 
added  thirds  and  sixths  to  the  unisons,  fifths  and  fourths. 
Later  still  a  system  consisting  of  thirds  and  sixths  in 
three  parts,  which  took  the  place  of  the  fifths  and  fourths, 
was  introduced  which  was  called  faux  bourdon  and  which 
was  much  more  pleasing,  though  monotonous. 

( b )  The  Hexachord.  But  Hucbald  was  but  a  John 
the  Baptist  to  Guido  Arentino  (995-1050),  an  Italian 
monk  connected  with  the  Benedictine  abbey  of  Pomposa 
near  Ravenna,  who,  as  we  have  already  seen,  introduced 
a  staff  of  four  lines — all  that  was  needed  when  the  range 
of  melodies  was  rarely  more  than  an  octave.  He  pro¬ 
vided  a  transitional  system  of  scales  between  the  modes 
and  our  modern  scales  in  the  hexagraphs  which,  probably 
already  in  use,  he  systematized  and  defined  more  fully. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  as  yet  the  octave  scale  had 
not  been  adopted.  Instead  there  were  three  hexachords, 
or  scales  of  six  tones,  recognized,  based  on  C,  F  and  G. 


When  the  melody  extended  beyond  the  “  la  ”  of  the  C 


first  which  men  learned  to  endure  with  equanimity.  It  took  them 
centuries  to  settle  down  to  the  comfortable  acceptance  of  such 
familiar  combinations  as  thirds  and  sixths,  and  it  took  fully  a 
thousand  years  after  their  sense  of  harmony  had  begun  to  dawn 
before  they  could  accept  the  simplest  discords  without  some  pre¬ 
liminary  device  to  save  the  ear  from  being  too  roughly  assailed 
by  the  sudden  jar.” — C.  Hubert  H.  Parry  in  “  The  Evolution  of 
the  Art  of  Music.” 


MEDIAEVAL  CHUEOH  MUSIC 


239 


hexachord,  there  was  a  change,  or  mutation,  to  the  hexa- 
chord  of  G  and  “  la  ”  of  the  C  hexachord  became  the 
“  re  ”  of  the  G  hexachord. 


do,  re. 


p  •  t  sol,  la., 
Lr  nil,  la,  -&~ 


’  ^  .r;  T-  - 

0 

rv*  rj  ^5  •  ^ 

• 

J 

S  S3  & 

*  & 

• 

•  Jii 

fj 

r  g  O  Gr 

K  do,  re,  mi,  fa,  sol,  la 


do,  re,  mi,  fa,  sol,  la. 


It  will  be  noticed  that  on  this  system  the  half  step  could 
only  be  expressed  by  mi-fa ;  there  was  no  si-do,  as  with  us. 

Our  present  notation  seems  complicated  to  many  peo¬ 
ple,  but  it  is  simplicity  itself  compared  with  Guido’s  sys¬ 
tem  of  solmization,  or  the  method  of  reading  new 
music  by  use  of  the  syllables.  But  in  all  justice  it  must 
be  compared  with  the  notational  chaos  it  displaced.  It 
made  the  learning  of  new  chants,  which  had  been  a  most 
laborious  task  for  both  teacher  and  pupil,  so  easy  that 
his  fellow  monks  suspected  him  of  dealing  with  the  Arch 
Enemy  and  expelled  him.8  The  reigning  pope,  Pope  John 
XIX,  heard  of  the  success  of  his  reforms  and  invited  him 
to  Rome.  When  the  pontiff  himself  was  soon  able  to  read 
music  of  the  liturgy  as  easily  as  its  text,  he  recognized  the 
great  value  of  Guido’s  work,  sanctioned  its  use  through¬ 
out  the  Church  and  reinstated  him  with  high  honour  in 
his  abbey. 

This  new  notation  with  its  syllabic  hexachords,  began  a 
new  era  in  the  development  of  music.  Not  only  singers, 
but  composers  were  enabled  “  to  hear  with  their  eyes  and 
see  with  their  ears  ”  and  had  an  ocular  sense  of  the  rela- 


8  His  extremely  sharp  and  sarcastic  tongue  was  no  small  factor 
in  his  unpopularity.  The  man  who  began  his  treatise  on  sight 
reading  with  the  statement :  “  Of  all  living  men,  singers  are  the 
most  fatuous,”  would  not  have  won  general  liking  in  any  day  or 
generation. 


240  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUKCH  MUSIC 


tions  of  tones  to  each  other,  enabling  them  to  undertake 
the  composition  of  music  of  a  more  complicated  character, 
thus  assuring  new  effects. 

(c)  Contemporaneous  Popular  Music.  We  have  the 
data  for  the  development  of  church  music,  slight  as  they 
are,  for  the  literary  ability  of  those  ages  was  monopolized 
by  the  clergy,  but  we  have  little  or  no  information  regard¬ 
ing  the  music  of  the  common  people  during  these  cen¬ 
turies.  The  Church  used  no  instruments  of  any  kind, 
with  the  occasional  exception  of  the  organ,  yet  they  were 
used  by  the  people  for  secular  purposes.  They  had  not 
only  flutes,  but  also  pan-pipes,  or  syrinx,  a  very  ancient 
instrument  often  translated  “  organ/’  They  had  bag¬ 
pipes  which  permitted  the  sounding  of  two  tones  at  once. 
They  had  a  variety  of  stringed  instruments  on  some  of 
which  chords  could  be  struck.  Was  Hucbald’s  experi¬ 
ment  simply  a  churchly  application  of  what  the  people 
were  doing? 

What  they  played  and  sang  we  do  not  know,  but  may 
be  quite  sure  it  was  tuneful  and  rhythmical  in  character. 
During  the  period  between  1000  a.  d.  and  1400  a.  d. 
stimulated  by  the  Crusades,  there  was  a  great  tide  of 
secular  song,  martial,  sentimental,  and  roystering.  Un¬ 
fortunately  while  the  text  of  many  of  these  survive,  the 
music,  still  written  in  neumes,  has  not  been  fully  de¬ 
ciphered,  and  we  are  dependent  on  inferences  and 
conjectures  for  an  idea  of  its  character  and  develop¬ 
ment. 

Judging  from  the  forms  and  literary  style  of  the  surviv¬ 
ing  lyrics,  it  must  have  been  full  of  studied  fancies  and 
fantastic  nuances,  becoming  ever  more  forced,  stilted  and 
intricate.  The  troubadours,  the  petted  favourites  of  peo¬ 
ple  of  all  classes,  royal  or  serf,  were  in  evidence  every¬ 
where  and  carried  these  songs  from  land  to  land.  The 


MEDIEVAL  CHURCH  MUSIC 


241 


Minnesingers  and  Meistersingers  were  their  worthy  suc¬ 
cessors  in  Germany. 

( d )  The  Development  of  Disc  ant.  The  effect  of  the 
Hucbaldian  harmony  was  mental  rather  than  musical,  for 
it  was  a  strengthening  of  the  unison  rather  than  a  real 
harmony,  the  fifths  being  overtones  of  the  fundamental 
and  the  fourths  inversions  of  the  fifths.  The  suggestion 
of  other  parts  than  the  unison  did  not  lead  in  the  direc¬ 
tion  of  harmony,  but  to  the  singing  of  other  melodies  at 
the  same  time  and  experiments  were  in  complicated 
melodic  rather  than  in  harmonic  lines. 

This  took  the  form  of  singing  some  well-known  secular 
melody  above  the  established  ritual  melody  which  was 
called  “  discant.”  The  main  melody  or  cantus  firmus 
was  always  sung  by  the  tenor.  The  discant  melody  was 
sung  by  a  higher  voice.  The  florid  development  of  the 
discant,  calling  for  uniform  time  in  the  singing,  com¬ 
pelled  mensural  notation, — i.  e.y  divisions  of  time.  A 
modern  example  would  be  given  if  a  high  voice  should 
sing  “  The  Old  Folks  at  Home  ”  while  the  rest  of  the 
singers  rendered  “  Take  it  to  the  Lord  in  Prayer.’’  The 
combinations  were  often  most  shocking,  the  discant  con¬ 
sisting  of  purely  secular,  often  ribald  songs  with  their 
offensive  texts. 

While  harmonic  elements  were  appearing  in  a  rudi¬ 
mentary  form,  the  chief  emphasis  was  placed  on  melody, 
and  the  tricks  of  the  troubadours  paved  the  way  for  the 
singing  of  different  melodies,  at  first  two  or  three,  after¬ 
wards  four  or  more,  at  the  same  time.  Of  course,  there 
had  to  be  concord  between  these  independent  melodies, 
but  this  result  was  reached  empirically,  by  ear,  not  by 
definite  harmonic  rules.  Singers  that  still  found  pleasure 
in  the  diaphony  of  Hucbald  would  not  be  disturbed  by 
the  lack  of  proper  chord  progressions. 


242  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Lavignac  insists  that  Hucbald  set  back  the  clock  of 
musical  development  something  like  five  centuries  by  his 
organum,  for  it  prevented  a  proper  harmonic  evolution 
for  that  time.  But  melody  is  the  life  of  music  and  har¬ 
mony  but  its  body  and  it  was  important,  nay,  inevitable, 
that  melody  should  be  developed  first.  Moreover  the 
polyphonic  style  served  indirectly  to  develop  the  science 
of  harmony. 

While  not  distinctly  formulated,  little  by  little  the  need 
of  concordant  combination  of  melodies  gave  rise  to 
empiric,  rule  of  thumb,  criteria  of  the  proper  progress  of 
the  several  parts  in  order  to  prevent  the  undesirable  dis¬ 
cord.  The  feeling  for  harmony  was  preparing  and  the 
raw  material  for  its  theory  being  gathered. 

For  several  generations  there  were  no  formal  harmonic 
relations  between  the  several  melodies  of  a  polyphonic 
composition.  It  was  enough  that  they  could  be  sung 
at  the  same  time  without  distressing  discord. 

This  discant  singing  was  by  no  means  always  concord¬ 
ant.  We  have  rather  heated  testimony  to  this  fact  from 
both  churchmen  and  theorists.  One  critic  compares  these 
extemporaneous  singers  of  discant  to  drunken  men  who 
find  their  way  home,  but  do  not  know  how  they  get  there. 
In  the  fourteenth  century  Jean  de  Muris,  a  great  theorist, 
gives  vent  to  his  artistic  wrath :  “  How  can  men  have  the 
face  to  sing  discant  who  know  nothing  of  the  combination 
of  sounds !  Their  voices  roam  around  the  cantas  firmus 
without  regard  to  any  rule ;  they  throw  their  tones  out  by 
luck,  just  as  an  unskillful  thrower  hurls  a  stone,  hitting 
the  mark  once  in  a  hundred  casts.  They  are  like  a  blind 
man  trying  to  strike  a  dog.” 

Even  the  irreverent  embroidering  of  churchly  chants 
with  secular,  even  coarse,  popular  songs  (so  that  while 
one  singer  sang  holy  chants  another  sang  some  bacchic, 


MEDIAEVAL  CHUECH  MUSIC 


243 


roystering,  taproom  ditty),  had  its  use,  for  it  prepared  the 
way  for  the  polyphonic  church  music,  the  germs  of  which 
were  already  found  in  the  eleventh  century.  The  people’s 
melodies  were  vitalizing  church  music. 

( e )  The  Development  of  Counterpoint.  But  with  all 
these  ear-rending  abuses  and  irreverences,  the  use  of  the 
discant  became  ever  more  intelligent  and  effective.  Pres¬ 
ently,  this  discordant,  extemporized  discant  was  changed 
and  adapted  to  the  cantus  firmus,  so  as  to  make  it  more 
harmonious.  Then  when  the  individual  notes  of  the 
several  parts  were  brought  into  relation  with  each  other, 
note  against  note,  point  against  point,  and  time  values 
were  recognized,  it  was  called  counterpoint.  The  irre¬ 
sponsible,  extemporized  discant  of  the  troubadours  be¬ 
came  more  ordered  and  subject  to  rule. 

While  the  fundamental  melody,  or  cantus  firmus,  was 
still  borrowed  from  established  chants  or  current  secular 
songs,  the  other  parts  were  kept  in  the  same  style  and 
more  and  more  were  based  upon  it  in  melodic  progress. 
Presently  the  several  parts  did  not  begin  at  the  same 
time,  introducing  a  climacteric  effect.  Then  the  second¬ 
ary  parts  began  to  imitate  the  series  of  intervals  of  the 
first  part,  which  was  called  imitation.  This  inevitably  de¬ 
veloped  figuration,  or  the  use  of  phrases  or  groups  of 
notes  having  a  definite  melodic  value. 

Later  still  the  melody  was  so  constructed  that  it  could 
be  taken  up  by  the  other  parts  one  by  one  and  still  be 
harmonious,  which  was  called  a  canon.  This  finally  in 
later  times  developed  into  the  elaborate  fugue  which 
reached  its  climax  in  the  work  of  J.  Sebastian  Bach.  In 
counterpoint  the  composer  has  two  or  more  melodies 
sounding  at  the  same  time.  The  several  parts  are  inde¬ 
pendent  of  each  other  except  that  they  must  be  measur¬ 
ably  concordant  or  harmonious.  This  is  merely  incidental 


244  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


to  the  movement  of  the  melodies  which  are  the  supreme 
consideration. 

In  harmony  there  is  a  melody  in  one  of  the  parts  while 
the  other  parts  are  so  written  that  they  are  merely  a 
harmonious  accompaniment  to  strengthen  or  embellish 
the  melody. 

It  is  important  to  distinguish  these  fundamental  terms. 
Organum  was  singing  fifths  and  fourths  under  the  melody. 
Organum  profanum  was  using  also  thirds  and  sixths. 
Discant  was  the  singing  of  other  melodies  as  an  accom¬ 
paniment  to  the  main  melody,  or  cantus  firmus.  Counter¬ 
point  was  a  discant  where  the  other  melodies  coincided  in 
time  with  the  cantus  firmus  point  by  point,  i.  e.,  note  by 
note. 

(/)  The  Development  of  the  Prose  and  the  Sequence. 
The  sequence  was  originally  a  melody  without  words, 
sung  to  the  concluding  syllable,  a,  of  “Alleluia.”  Later 
it  was  attached  to  the  Gradual  of  the  mass.  In  the  ninth 
century  words  were  adapted  to  this  melody  and  it  was 
called  a  Prose,  being  without  meter.  These  Proses  were 
given  a  metrical  form  and  became  hymns  following  the 
Gradual  and  Alleluia  owing  to  which  they  were  called 
Sequences. 

From  the  twelfth  to  the  fifteenth  centuries  these  were 
very  popular  and  some  of  the  most  poetical  and  spiritual 
talent  of  the  Church  found  a  voice  in  them.  However,  at 
the  Council  of  Trent  all  but  five  of  them  were  officially 
eliminated  from  the  liturgy.  Some  of  our  most  valued 
translations  of  mediaeval  hymns  come  from  this  source 
and  their  melodies  are  found  in  Anglican  hymnals. 

(, g )  The  Further  Progress  of  Polyphony.  The  chro¬ 
nology  of  this  period  is  very  difficult  to  fix,  partly  because 
progress  was  not  made  at  an  equal  pace  in  all  parts  of 
the  Western  Church,  partly  because  of  the  varying  abilities 


MEDIEVAL  CHURCH  MUSIC 


245 


and  progressiveness  of  the  leading  musicians  of  different 
localities,  partly  because  of  the  lack  of  needful  data.  In 
general  the  period  of  experimentation  in  polyphonic  music 
lasted  from  1000  to  1350.  It  was  a  time  of  wildest  con¬ 
fusion.  Staffs  of  from  two  to  thirteen  lines,  all  sorts  of 
clefs,  diaphony,  discant,  counterpoint,  all  at  the  same 
time. 

The  rules  of  counterpoint  had  been  more  and  more 
definitely  formulated  from  1200  on.  Consecutive  fifths 
had  been  eliminated ;  unresolved  discords  had  disappeared 
and  satisfying  resolutions  invented;  thirds  and  sixths 
were  freely  used;  the  value  of  oblique  and  contrary 
motion  had  been  recognized  and  exploited.  Music  became 
a  mathematical  science;  compositions  were  the  result  of 
calculation,  mechanical  and  rigid,  not  of  inspiration  under 
the  guidance  of  the  ear. 

Rules  based  on  theological  subtleties,  purely  academical 
and  artificial  restrictions,  symbolisms  of  all  kinds,  ingeni¬ 
ous  combinations  of  mere  notation,  the  solution  of  merely 
technical  problems,  made  up  the  body  of  these  poly¬ 
phonies.  Single  and  double  counterpoint,  elaborated  into 
direct,  inverted,  retrograde,  augmented  and  diminished, 
was  elaborated  for  the  eye  rather  than  for  the  ear. 

The  compositions  were  valued  for  their  elaborateness 
and  intricacy,  not  for  their  musical  effects.  They  were 
theoretical  examples  and  not  practical  compositions  in¬ 
tended  to  be  sung.  Monks  sat  in  their  cells,  far  from 
the  world  and  studied  the  rules  and  juggled  with  black 
dots  on  ruled  white  paper.4 

*  “  The  monks  .  .  .  were  not  only  the  conservators  of 
classical  philosophy  and  literature  .  .  .  but  were  also  poets, 
architects,  painters,  sculptors,  and  musicians,  the  originators  of 
theories  and  technicalities  connected  with  all  arts.  The  cloister 
was  in  itself  a  substitute  for  university,  library,  art  academy, 


246  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


It  was  a  dead,  useless,  mechanical  product,  of  course, 
but  very  valuable  as  apprentice  work,  as  academical  ex¬ 
ercises  that  should  train  the  coming  composer  and  give 
him  a  full  command  of  all  possible  musical  resources.5 

This  polyphonic  development  was  almost  entirely  an 
outgrowth  of  musical  initiative  in  northern  France  and 
the  Netherlands.  In  the  same  region  and  during  the 
same  period  the  Gothic  architecture  was  originated.  It  is 
easy  to  see  the  common  elements  expressed  in  them, — the 
expression  of  individuality,  the  multiplicity  of  details,  and 
the  organizing  instinct  for  their  perfect  correlation  in  a 
unified  whole. 

In  actual  use  there  was  a  persistence  of  the  musical 
Gregorian  chants  with  such  simple  use  of  diaphony  and 
discant  as  was  practical.  Doubtless  there  was  recourse  to 
some  of  the  more  sedate  and  solemn  folk-songs  where 
choirs  of  the  clergy  were  not  available.  It  is  worthy  of 
note  that  while  church  music  was  becoming  more  and 
more  artificial  and  mechanical,  folk-song  was  rising  to  the 
peak  of  its  attractiveness  and  popularity. 

and  museum.  .  .  .  But  above  all  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
that  the  elevation  of  music  into  a  self-existing  art  is  almost 
entirely  owing  to  the  zealous  earnestness  of  the  monks.” — Nau- 
mann,  “  History  of  Music.” 

6  “  Composers  found  out  artistic  devices  which  facilitated  their 
labours,  and  enabled  them  to  approximate  to  more  pleasing  and 
artistic  results.  But  the  average  quality  of  their  works  of  every 
kind  is  marvellously  crude,  harsh,  and  incoherent.  Almost  every 
elementary  rule  of  art  which  a  modern  musician  holds  inviolable 
is  broken  incessantly,  and  there  are  hardly  any  pieces  of  music, 
by  the  most  learned  or  the  most  intelligent  musicians  up  to  the 
fourteenth  century,  which  are  not  too  rough  and  uncouth  to  be 
listened  to  by  even  the  most  liberal  minded  and  intelligent  musician 
without  such  bewilderment  as  often  ends  in  irrepressible 
laughter.” — C.  Hubert  H.  Parry,  “The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of 
Music.” 


MEDIEVAL  CHUKCH  MUSIC 


247 


2.  The  Growth  of  Artistic  Purpose 

( a )  The  Artistic  Use  of  Acquired  Technical  Skill.  As 
the  fifteenth  century  approached  this  great  contrapuntal 
competition  began  to  subside.  All  possible  elaborations 
and  intricacies  having  been  exhausted,  composers  began  to 
think  of  using  the  tools  that  had  been  so  industriously 
forged  for  practical  and  even  artistic  ends.  The  melodies 
lost  their  arbitrary,  inexpressive  angularity  and  became 
smooth  and  pleasing.  The  harmonies  became  less  dis¬ 
cordant  and  harsh,  gaining  variety,  suavity,  and  charm. 
The  construction  was  simplified  and  the  awkward  use  of 
merely  technical  procedure  eliminated.  They  began  to 
set  current  lyrics  in  polyphonic  style,  but  with  more  pleas¬ 
ing  melodies,  simpler  construction  and  less  intricate  and 
more  singable  counterpoint.  The  church  music  became 
more  smooth  and  flowing,  more  melodic  and  more  ex¬ 
pressive. 

( b )  The  Abuse  of  the  Artistic  Impulse.  This  tend¬ 
ency  was  again  overdone  and  we  hear  of  secular  melodies 
used  as  the  cantus  firmus  in  masses,  so  that  we  find  the 
Mass  of  “  The  Armed  Man  ”  or  Mass,  “Adieu,  My 
Love,”  or  Mass  “  Friend  Bandichon.”  This  was  not 
done  with  any  thought  of  irreverence,  just  as  in  our  day 
the  use  of  “  Old  Black  Joe  ”  with  a  religious  text  gives  no 
offense  to  many  very  religious  people. 

Worse  than  this  borrowing  of  airs  from  secular  sources 
upon  which  to  build  masses  was  the  introduction  of 
elaborate  cadenzas  and  other  secular  ornaments  in  bad 
taste  and  worse  irreligiousness.  So  while  secular  music 
had  given  religious  composition  a  new  impulse  and  had 
broken  down  the  rigidity  of  the  technical  polyphony,  it 
had  also  served  to  endanger  its  liturgical  and  religious 
value. 

( c )  Music  Affected  by  General  Irreligiousness.  This 


248  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


danger  was  all  the  greater  because  of  the  loss  of  the 
primitive  faith  and  devotion  of  the  leading  political  and 
intellectual  classes  because  of  the  Renaissance.  The  body 
of  the  Church  was  still  devout  and  strong  in  faith,  but  the 
leaders  were  corrupt  in  morals,  bankrupt  in  faith,  devoted 
to  worldly  ideals  in  art  and  literature.  The  protest  of 
Huss  had  ended  in  a  martyr’s  fire,  but  the  later  denuncia¬ 
tions  of  Luther  had  political  power  back  of  them  and 
led  to  the  awakening  of  the  Church  at  large  to  the  need 
of  a  Counter-Reformation  which  included  music  as  well. 

( d )  The  Reforms  Led  by  Palestrina.  Just  as  the 
Catholic  Church  had  still  a  large  body  of  devout  people, 
lay  and  clerical  who  were  spiritual  and  devout,  so  there 
were  still  composers  and  musical  authorities  who  culti¬ 
vated  noble  ideals  of  church  music.  Pierluigi  Palestrina 
( 1524-1594 6),  is  often  lauded  as  the  St.  George  who 
went  out  single-handed  to  destroy  the  dragon  of  a  secu¬ 
larized  church  music ;  but  he  was  not  alone.  He  had  the 
advantage  of  being  at  the  ecclesiastical  and  musical  center 
and  so  received  a  recognition  for  his  good  work  denied  to 
others  less  fortunately  placed  who  cultivated  the  same 
ideals  and  produced  musical  compositions  little  if  any 
less  valuable  than  his. 

Goudimel  (1549-1572),  a  Frenchman,  had  been  the 
teacher  of  Palestrina  and  formed  his  ideals  as  well  as 
trained  him  in  counterpoint.  He  it  was  who  set  the 
Genevan  psalm  tunes  in  plain  four  part  counterpoint,  plac¬ 
ing  the  melody  in  the  tenor  as  was  the  custom  in  the 

6  Palestrina  was  born  in  1525  or  1526  at  Palestrina  in  the  Cam- 
pagna  of  Rome.  At  an  early  age  he  went  to  Rome  for  musical 
study.  He  is  reputed  to  have  been  a  scholar  of  the  Fleming, 
Goudimel.  Certain  it  is  that  he  was  a  disciple  of  the  Flemish 
school  of  composers  and  at  first  he  indulged  in  their  vagaries  but 
later  developed  a  profoundly  religious  as  well  as  artistic  style. 


MEDIAEVAL  CHURCH  MUSIC 


249 


polyphonic  music  of  that  era.  He  was  suspected  of 
Protestant  sympathies  and  perished  in  the  massacre  of 
St.  Bartholomew’s  night. 

Josquin  des  Pres,  Willaert  of  St.  Mark’s,  Venice,  Or- 
landus  Lassus,  Arcadelt,  were  other  Netherlanders  who 
cultivated  a  high  standard.  Andrea  and  Giovanni  Ga- 
brielli,and  Croce  in  Venice,  the  Anerios  and  Naninis  of 
Rome,  and  Tallis  in  England  did  wonderful  work  worthy 
of  Palestrina  himself. 

If  Palestrina  had  any  musical  advantages  over  these 
composers,  it  was  in  the  greater  Italian  instinct  for 
sweetness  and  charm  of  melody.  In  every  other  respect 
he  was  the  pupil  of  the  Netherlanders  through  Goudimel. 
There  was  no  change  of  methods,  no  sudden  transforma¬ 
tion  of  style.  He,  with  the  others  mentioned,  simply 
reached  the  consummate  flower  of  the  mediaeval  poly¬ 
phonic  style  of  chorus  music. 

His  Mass  of  Pope  Marcellus  is  a  noble  example  of  the 
mediaeval  church  music  at  its  best.  The  stories  that  have 
gathered  about  it  are  myths.  He  wrote  other  masses 
equally  good,  but  none  better  and  some  less  worthy. 
Instead  of  creating  a  great  musical  epoch,  he,  with  Allegri, 
Cavalini,  and  a  few  others,  closed  the  mediaeval  period 
in  a  noble  and  worthy  way. 

3.  General  Characteristics  of  Mediaeval 

Church  Music 

It  may  be  well  to  fix  in  our  minds  the  definite  char¬ 
acteristics  of  this  mediaeval  church  music  in  order  to 
differentiate  it  from  the  music  of  the  present  day. 

(a)  It  was  chorus  music.  There  were  no  solos,  or 
concerted  numbers,  as  in  modern  music.  The  emphasis 
placed  on  an  individual  melody,  or  the  striking  introduc¬ 
tion  of  a  single  singer,  would  have  been  felt  as  a  dis- 


250  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


traction,  an  intrusion  upon  the  worshipful  attitude  of  the 
hearer. 

( b )  The  music  was  purely  vocal.  There  was  no  in¬ 
strumental  accompaniment  of  any  kind.  As  the  organ 
was  developed  it  was  occasionally  used  to  give  or  support 
the  pitch  by  sounding  a  few  notes  at  long  intervals.  But 
otherwise,  despite  the  multiplicity  of  instruments  used  in 
private  life  and  on  secular  occasions  and  festivals,  and 
the  affluence  of  instrumental  music  for  such  use,  the 
Church  did  not  allow  their  use,  feeling  it  would  disturb 
the  serenity  and  spirituality  of  its  liturgy. 

(c)  While  these  mediaeval  choruses  had  harmony,  inas¬ 
much  as  the  several  parts  must  be  more  or  less  in  con¬ 
cord,  it  was  merely  accidental  and  not  an  organic  part  of 
it.  Melody  in  every  part  whether  there  were  two  or 
twelve,  was  the  fundamental  conception. 

( d )  This  mediaeval  music  was  practically  still  on  the 
old  modal  or  hexachord  basis.  There  were  no  modula¬ 
tions  into  relative  keys,  for  there  were  no  other  keys.  A 
flat  was  used  occasionally — in  the  hexachord  of  F — but 
there  were  no  other  accidentals  in  a  harmonic  sense.  In 
other  words,  with  the  rather  rare  exception  of  a  Bb, 
only  the  tones  represented  by  the  white  keys  of  an  organ 
or  piano  were  used. 

(e)  There  was  little  or  no  organization  of  the  melody 
into  phrases  or  periods,  no  seeking  after  symmetry,  no 
balancing  of  one  passage  against  another,  no  architectonic 
building  up  of  the  several  parts.  Each  of  the  melodies  in 
the  several  parts  was  continuous,  with  no  joints.  This  is 
particularly  true  of  the  severe  or  intricate  style.  In  the 
simple  or  familiar  style  there  was  more  articulation,  sug¬ 
gested  no  doubt  by  the  metrical  form  of  the  secular  lyrics. 

(/)  While  the  cantus  firmus  was  the  leading  melody, 
usually  assigned  to  the  tenor,  the  other  parts  were  con- 


MEDIEVAL  CHURCH  MUSIC 


251 


ceived  of,  not  as  a  harmonic  accompaniment  to  a  leading 
solo,  but  as  independent  melodies.  In  the  music  of 
Palestrina’s  age,  the  cantus  firmus  falls  away  and  all  the 
parts  have  equal  value. 

4.  The  Effect  of  Mediaeval  Church  Music  on 

Modern  Nerves 

If  one  has  not  heard  music  of  this  kind,  it  will  be  diffi¬ 
cult  to  imagine  its  effect.  With  no  variation  from  chorus 
to  solo  voices,  with  no  instruments  of  varying  timbre  to 
stir  up  the  nerves,  with  no  orderly  progress  of  the  con¬ 
sonances  and  dissonances,  with  no  chromatic  intervals  or 
changes  of  key,  with  no  points  of  rest  temporary  or  com¬ 
plete,  with  no  one  definite  melody  on  which  to  concentrate 
the  attention,  one  would  expect  a  depressing  monotony. 

But  at  the  very  first  the  incessant  movement  of  the 
parts  in  continuous  melody,  the  unexpected  chord  rela¬ 
tions  and  effects,  intrigue  one’s  interest.  There  is  a  de¬ 
lightful  serenity,  a  very  spirituality,  in  the  quiet  flow  of 
the  ever-changing  melodies  as  they  rise  and  fall  with  an 
even  force  whose  variations  are  slight  as  compared  with 
the  climacteric  variations  in  a  modern  composition.  One 
feels  that  this  is  true  worshipful  music  that  lifts  the  soul 
into  the  upper  serenities  without  any  appeal  to  human 
desire  or  dramatic  instinct. 

But  presently  the  attention  begins  to  wander  and  a 
greater  effort  is  needed  to  follow  the  lines  of  imitation  be¬ 
tween  the  parts.  Then  one  falls  into  a  passive  state  of 
mind  where  one  is  conscious  only  of  a  vague  nervous 
impression. 

Then  the  monotony  of  the  effect  begins  to  be  painful 
and  you  long  for  a  restful  cadence  or  a  climax,  until  you 
have  a  sense  of  a  drop  of  water  falling  on  some  single 
spot  and  you  distressfully  long  for  it  to  cease.  Of  course, 


252  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


much  will  depend  on  the  nervous  system  of  the  hearer, 
whether  it  be  dull  or  sensitive,  whether  it  has  been 
trained  to  adapt  itself  to  unusual  combinations  of  sound. 
The  average  musical  hearer  will  suffer  after  his  first 
interest  begins  to  flag,  because  his  nerves  are  not  accus¬ 
tomed  to  the  unbroken  monotony  and  because  he  cannot 
think  musically  in  the  mediaeval  idiom.  Its  logic  differs 
entirely  from  that  of  modern  music. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Where  did  the  first  signs  of  musical  progress  appear? 

2.  What  was  the  meaning  of  “  organum  ”  ?  “  organum  pro- 
f  anum  ”  ?  “  diaphony  ”  ? 

3.  What  important  lines  of  progress  were  due  to  Guido 
Arentino  ? 

4.  What  was  the  hexachord?  What  was  mutation?  What 
was  solmization? 

5.  Give  the  story  of  Guido’s  experience. 

6.  What  was  the  state  of  popular  music  during  the  Middle 
Ages? 

7.  What  influence  did  it  exert  on  church  music? 

8.  Who  were  the  Troubadours,  the  Minnesingers,  the  Meister- 
singers? 

9.  What  was  the  discant? 

10.  What  share  had  harmony  in  its  development? 

11.  Was  discant  singing  concordant? 

12.  What  is  counterpoint? 

13.  Give  the  musical  character  of  the  period  from  1000  a.  d. 
to  1350  A.  D. 

14.  What  was  the  value  of  this  contrapuntal  work? 

15.  What  was  the  Church  at  large  doing  musically  during  this 
period? 

16.  What  change  appeared  during  the  latter  half  of  the  four¬ 
teenth  century? 

17.  What  musical  abuses  set  in  and  what  was  their  cause? 

18.  Who  was  Palestrina?  In  what  work  was  he  a  leader? 

19.  What  other  composers  shared  in  the  work  of  reform? 

20.  In  what  particular  did  Palestrina’s  music  excel? 

21.  What  six  characteristics  did  this  mediaeval  music  display? 

22.  Describe  the  impression  made  by  this  music. 


XIX 

THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  REFORMATION 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  If  at  all  possible,  have  some  of  the 
leading  German  chorals  mentioned  in  the  text  played  on  the 
organ  or  piano,  quite  preferably  the  organ.  If  time  allows,  con¬ 
nect  up  this  chapter  with  the  church  and  secular  history  of  this 
period.  Call  special  attention  to  the  tunes  still  in  use  borrowed 
from  the  German. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Dickinson,  “  Music  in  the  Western 
Church,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Naumann,  “History  of 
Music,”  Cassell,  London ;  Grove,  “  Dictionary  of  Music  and 
Musicians,”  Art.  “Chorale”  and  “Luther,”  Presser,  Phila¬ 
delphia  ;  Sittard,  “  Compendium  der  Geschichte  der  Kirchen- 
musik,”  Levy  and  Muller,  Stuttgart,  Germany;  Cunz,  “Geschichte 
des  deutschen  Kirchen-Liedes,”  Loeschke,  Leipzig. 

It  is  noteworthy  that  at  the  very  time  that  Palestrina 
and  his  contemporaries  were  bringing  the  mediaeval  poly¬ 
phonic  chorus  to  a  high  point  of  perfection  in  both  relig¬ 
ious  and  artistic  value,  an  entirely  new  force  in  church 
music  should  have  appeared  in  the  North.  The  mechan¬ 
ical  counterpoint  had  been  developed  to  a  large  degree  in 
the  Netherlands  and  in  northern  France  as  the  outgrowth 
of  the  schools  of  music  founded  by  Charlemagne.  The 
humanizing  touch  under  the  influence  of  folk-song  had 
come  from  the  same  region  through  the  Northerners, 
Goudimel  and  Lassus  at  Rome  and  Willaert  in  Venice. 

i.  Pre-Reformation  Vernacular  Hymns 

There  is  abundant  evidence  of  the  growth  of  popular 
vernacular  religious  song  from  the  eleventh  century  on. 
The  enthusiasm  generated  by  the  Crusades,  the  new  in¬ 
tellectual  activities  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries 
could  not  but  find  a  repercussion  in  the  religious  life  and 
popular  music  of  the  people.  The  chivalrous  attitude  of 
the  age  led  to  intenser  loyalty  to  the  Virgin  Mary  and 

253 


254  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


innumerable  songs  were  written  in  devotion  to  her.1 
There  were  hymns  written  in  honour  of  popular  saints. 
There  were  songs  for  festivals  and  processions. 

Tauler,  Eckhart  and  other  mystics  wrote  hymns  of  a 
more  spiritual  order,  expressing  desire  for  conscious  com¬ 
munion  with  God,  more  subjective  and  individual  than 
those  in  general  use.  In  the  convents  there  were  almost 
erotic  hymns  contemplating  the  perfections  of  the  Divine 
Bridegroom.  There  was  abundant  religious  life  in  the 
body  of  the  Church  that  craved  this  extra-liturgical  ex¬ 
pression. 

Indeed,  this  tide  of  religious  life  rose  higher  and  higher 
among  the  laity,  the  inferior  clergy,  and  the  more  obscure 
monastic  institutions,  manifesting  itself  in  such  fanatics 
as  the  Flagellants ;  in  minor  heresies  and  in  local  efforts 
at  reform.  This  growing  religious  vigour  finally  culmi¬ 
nated  in  the  Reformation,  and  in  the  Counter-Reforma¬ 
tion  in  the  Catholic  Church.2 

(a)  Participation  in  Musical  Service  Forbidden  in 
Germany.  In  Germany  from  the  beginning  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church  under  Gallus  in  the  seventh  century  and  later 
under  Bonifacius  in  the  eighth  century,  the  music  of  the 
service  was  in  Latin  and  was  sung  only  by  the  clergy. 
The  response,  “  Kyrie  eleison  ”  or  “  Kyrie  eleis,”  was  for 

1  This  had  gone  so  far  that  the  Psalms,  and  other  passages  of 
Scripture,  had  been  rewritten  to  refer  to  the  Virgin  and  issued 
as  the  “  Psalter  of  Mary.” 

2  “  There  is  an  enormous  quantity  of  genuine  early  German 
folk-music ;  but  it  is  quite  singularly  deficient  in  vividness  of 
any  kind,  and  is  devoid  of  marked  characteristics  in  the  way  of 
eccentric  intervals  and  striking  rhythms.  The  designs  themselves 
are  on  an  average  of  a  higher  order  and  represent  stronger 
instincts  for  organization  than  the  tunes  of  other  nations  which 
in  actual  details  of  material  are  more  attractive.” — C.  Hubert  H. 
Parry  in  “  The  Evolution  of  the  Art  of  Music.” 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  REFORMATION  255 


centuries  the  only  participation  in  the  musical  service  al¬ 
lowed  the  laity. 

The  Capitularian  of  Charlemagne  and  Louis  the  Pious 
forbade  their  congregating  at  the  crossways  or  streets  to 
engage  in  worldly  gossip  or  the  singing  of  secular  songs. 
If  they  desired  to  sing  they  should  confine  themselves  to 
the  “  Kyrie  ”  which  they  often  did  hundreds  of  times  in 
succession. 

( b )  The  Beginning  of  the  Vernacular  Hymn.  But 
this  satisfied  neither  the  musical  nor  the  devout  impulses 
of  the  people.  Vernacular  hymns  began  to  be  written 
and  sung  in  the  eleventh  century,  although  none  have 
survived.  At  the  anointing  of  King  Conrad  in  1024  it  is 
said,  “  Joyfully  they  marched,  the  clergy  singing  in  Latin, 
the  people  in  German,  each  after  its  own  fashion.” 

Following  as  they  did  the  Kyrie  sung  by  the  people  it 
was  natural  that  the  sequences  should  be  translated  into 
the  common  speech,  and  hence  we  find  them  coming  into 
use.  The  Germans  were  much  more  given  to  this  practice 
than  other  nations,  as  we  see  from  many  incidental  allu¬ 
sions  in  letters  and  books  of  the  period. 

By  the  time  the  twelfth  century  appeared  the  religious 
folk-song  had  been  fully  developed  out  of  the  “  Kyrie 
eleison which  was  commonlv  used  as  a  refrain  and 
which  was  the  basis  of  the  word  for  song  in  all  European 
languages,  surviving  in  our  word  “  lay.” 

Quite  a  number  of  both  hymns  and  melodies  of  the 
thirteenth  century  have  come  down  to  us.  The  political 
unrest,  the  prevalence  of  pestilence,  the  worldliness  of 
the  priesthood,  all  united  to  make  the  fourteenth  century 
less  prolific  in  German  religious  songs ;  but  some  interest¬ 
ing  and  admirable  examples  remain. 

( c )  The  High  Tide  of  Vernacular  Hymnology.  The 
tide  of  vernacular  song  rose  again  in  the  fifteenth  century 


256  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


and  the  treasury  of  Pre-Reformation  religious  hymns  was 
greatly  enriched.  The  people  participated  less  and  less  in 
the  Latin  hymns.  German  hymns  were  used  in  the  reg¬ 
ular  church  services.  The  clergy  sang  in  Latin  and  the 
laity  replied  in  German.  This  recognition  by  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  which  was  absolutely  essential  to 
hold  the  people  and  to  serve  their  spiritual  interests  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  rapid  adoption  of  the  art  of  Guten¬ 
berg,  on  the  other,  led  to  a  rapid  development  and  im¬ 
provement  of  the  people’s  religious  song.  Their  use  was 
encouraged,  not  only  on  extra-liturgical  occasions,  such 
as  processions,  christenings  and  the  like,  but  in  the  stated 
service  itself. 

( d )  Source  of  Tunes.  Part  of  the  melodies  were  ar¬ 
ranged  from  the  churchly  sequences,  but  more  were  bor¬ 
rowed  from  prevalent  secular  songs.  In  1527  there  ap¬ 
peared  at  Nuremburg  “  Evangelisch  Mess  Teutsch” 
(Evangelical  German  Mass)  to  whose  hymns  popular 
melodies  were  to  be  sung:  “  Rosina,  where  is  thy  form?  ” 
“  There  comes  a  summer  freshness  ”  and  the  like.  In 
1540  appeared  in  Antwerp  a  collection  of  spiritual  songs 
with  152  folk  melodies. 

About  the  same  time  Marot  issued  his  metrical  para¬ 
phrases  of  the  Psalms  set  to  hunting  and  dancing  tunes. 
In  1571  appeared  “  Gassenhauer,  Reuter  und  Berg- 
liedlein,  christlich,  moraliter,  und  sittlich  verandert  ” 
(Street,  Riding  and  Mountain  Songs,  altered  in  a  Chris¬ 
tian,  moral  and  decent  way)  at  Frankfort  a.  M.  in  Ger¬ 
many.  From  this  it  may  be  seen  how  prevalent  was  the 
fashion  of  transferring  secular  tunes  to  sacred  uses.  This 
was  the  easier,  as  the  German  folk-songs  are  dignified  and 
heavy,  as  compared  with  the  light  frivolousness  of  those 
of  other  nations. 

On  the  other  hand,  these  tunes  borrowed  from  the 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  REFORMATION  257 


sequences,  as  well  as  the  folk-songs,  that  were  used,  were 
not  syllabic,  but  were  varied  in  rhythm,  indulging  not 
only  in  triple  time,  but  even  in  syncopation.  It  was  not 
until  the  latter  part  of  the  seventeenth  century  that  the 
tunes  were  transformed  into  the  more  stately  syllabified 
form. 

( e )  Vernacular  Hymns  in  Bohemia.  This  general  up¬ 
rising  of  religious  spirit  and  its  efforts  at  self-purgation 
were  naturally  reflected  in  the  popular  religious  song. 
Under  the  leadership  of  Huss  there  was  a  demand  for  the 
use  of  the  people’s  language  in  worship.  He  wrote  hymns 
in  Czech  as  well  as  Latin  and  urged  the  use  of  these 
popular  religious  songs. 

There  was  a  Czech  hymn-book  published  in  1501,  and 
another  by  the  “  Unitas  Fratrum”  in  1505  containing  no 
less  than  four  hundred  hymns.  These  hymns  were  sung 
to  tunes  from  various  sources,  churchly  and  secular. 
Their  influence  in  Germany  must  have  been  considerable, 
hastening  the  rise  of  the  German  hymnology. 

(/)  Musical  Resources  Ready  for  the  Reformation. 
Even  more  than  other  peoples,  the  Germans  had  always 
been  a  song-loving  people.  As  we  have  seen,  before  the 
Reformation  they  had  a  wealth  of  religious  folk-songs  in 
the  vernacular.  These  were  melodic  and  simple  in  struc¬ 
ture.  While  the  people  had  a  very  slight  share  in  the 
music  of  the  liturgy,  they  sang  their  pious  folk-songs  at 
festivals  and  processions  and  in  their  daily  life.  In 
consequence  Luther  and  his  associates  had  immense 
musical  resources  at  their  command  when  their  propa¬ 
ganda  in  behalf  of  the  Reformation  began. 

The  tunes  were  ready  at  hand  and  were  known  to  the 
people.  The  hymns  could  be  purged  of  their  mariolatry 
and  hagiolatry  and  given  a  more  definitely  evangelical 
content.  Obeying  the  widely  popular  demand,  they  took 


258  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


the  radical  step  of  introducing  them  into  public  worship 
and  the  music  of  the  Reformation  was  in  full  operation. 
This  accounts  for  the  rapid  spread  of  the  new  faith. 

Just  as  in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries  the  Arians  had 
propagated  their  heresies  by  means  of  popular  hymns 
sung  to  well-known  tunes,  so  Luther  by  the  use  of  this 
music  won  the  people.  There  was  all  the  more  enthu¬ 
siasm,  because  a  song-loving  people  was  permitted  fully 
to  share  in  the  music  of  the  public  service  and  in  their 
own  tongue. 

2.  The  New  Hymnology  of  the  German 

Reformation 

While  this  great  ready  to  hand  body  of  song  was  the 
secret  of  the  popular  success  of  the  Reformation,  the  new 
faith,  with  its  almost  fanatical  enthusiasm,  the  new  initia¬ 
tive,  rending  the  shackles  of  prescribed  routine,  the  new, 
fresh  vision  of  divine  truth,  urged  the  seeking  of  entirely 
new  expression  in  hymns  and  melodies. 

( a )  Luther's  Helpers.  One  of  Luther’s  most  valuable 
helpers  on  the  popular  side  of  the  reformer’s  musical 
effort  was  Johann  Walther  (1496-1570),  who  issued  a 
hymn-book  with  music  in  1524  containing  thirty-eight 
German  and  five  Latin  hymns  set  in  three,  four  and  five 
parts.  His  chief  contribution  was  the  clarifying  of  church 
melodies  by  giving  them  the  form  of  the  current  folk¬ 
songs  and  so  making  them  practical  for  the  singing  of  the 
people.  He  has  been  termed  the  co-founder  with  Luther 
of  the  evangelical  church  hymn,  for  he  supplied  the 
musical  skill  and  training  wanting  in  Luther. 

Another  valuable  helper,  on  the  choral  side,  however, 
was  Ludwig  Send  (1480-1555),  whose  motets  broke  the 
path  for  the  polyphonal  motets  and  cantatas  of  J.  Sebas¬ 
tian  Bach.  They  were  great  favourites  with  Luther,  as 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  KEFOKMATIOH  259 


were  also  his  contrapuntal  and  polyphonal  settings  of 
German  hymns.  These  two  composers  represented  the 
two  sides  of  subsequent  German  church  music. 

( b )  Luther's  Own  Contribution. 

(1)  Luther  himself  wrote  thirty-six  new  hymns  which 
furnished  the  models  in  substance  and  style  for  a  host  of 
other  hymn  writers,  so  that  by  the  time  of  his  death  no 
less  than  sixty  collections,  including  enlarged  editions, 
had  been  issued.  Koch  gives  the  name  of  fifty-one  writ¬ 
ers  who  contributed  to  the  new  German  hymnody  between 
1517  and  1560. 

Some  of  his  hymns  were  free  versions  of  favourite 
psalms;  others  were  expressions  of  personal  experience. 
He  had  a  strong,  direct,  almost  homely  style  that  appealed 
to  the  German  people. 

(2)  For  some  of  his  hymns,  he  supplied  music,  notably 
“  Ein  Feste  Burg  ist  unser  Gott  ”  and  “  Gelobet  seist  du, 
Jesus  Christ.”  While  he  was  no  professional  musician, 
he  had  the  creative  urge  which  showed  itself  in  many 
directions,  and  would  be  quite  sure  to  manifest  itself  in 
a  line  where  he  had  so  much  need  as  well  as  interest. 
The  effort  to  find  original  sources  for  all  the  tunes  alleged 
to  be  his  is  commendable  in  itself,  but  one  must  take  the 
results  of  the  investigation  with  a  proper  discount  for 
the  ever-present  vice  in  German  scholarship  of  exaggerat¬ 
ing  microscopic  coincidences  into  bases  for  large  gen¬ 
eralizations.  To  find  a  few  successive  notes  in  an  ancient 
Gregorian  melody  slightly  resembling  a  slight  phrase  in 
the  tune  to  Luther’s  “  Ein  feste  Burg,”  as  did  Baumler, 
does  not  to  the  slightest  degree  invalidate  Luther’s  stand¬ 
ing  as  its  composer.3  Moreover  as  he  supplied  only  the 
tunes,  no  professional  training  was  needed,  for  the  great 
mass  of  folk-songs  are  composed  by  non-professional  per¬ 
sons. 

8  See  Naumann’s  “  History  of  Music,”  Vol.  I,  pp.  460-469. 


260  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


(c)  Transitional  Character  of  Luther's  Tunes.  Look¬ 
ing  over  the  melodies  ascribed  to  Luther,  one  is  struck 
with  the  fact  that  his  sense  of  tonality  had  not  been  fully 
developed.  In  one  case  the  melody  is  clearly  in  the  key 
of  C,  but  in  the  last  strain  it  passes  into  the  key  of  G  and 
leaves  the  tune  there !  Another,  ostensibly  in  the  key  of 
C,  begins  on  B,  is  vaguely  in  the  key  of  A  minor  during 
the  first  strain,  then  vaguely  in  C,  then  again  vaguely  in 
A  minor,  then  modulates  into  G  and  closes  in  C.4  An¬ 
other  begins  and  ends  on  B,  although  it  moves  principally 
in  the  tonality  of  A  minor.  Another  is  conceived  in  the 
Dorian  mode,  beginning  on  A  and  ending  on  D.  Traces 
of  the  sequences  with  their  many  notes  on  one  syllable 

4  The  One  Hundred  and  Thirtieth  Psalm. 


0  1 

r  i  i 

*/ 

L /  *  yQ  J  JQ ^2  ^ 

IIj  Zl  3 

f 

U/  &  i  &  ^ 

A  &  ^ 

V 

Z  A  t 

fj 

r — 

Aus  tie  -  fer  Noth  schrei  ich  zu  dir. 

Dein  gna  -  dig  Oh  -  ren  kehr  zu  mir 


r\  .  ♦ 

/  ^  J 

. — 

• 

/ 

1  •!! 

IT 

'v . *  ft  ^ 

-  A 

i  • , 

z  t  t: r~ tz 

A  •  ; 

fj 

I  1  ^ 

Herr  Gott,  er  -  hor  mein  Ruf  -  eir_ 

Und  mein  -  er  Bitt  sie  of  -  fen- 


J  J  w  J  | 

J 

,  N* 

A  {2  sA  1  i - -  0  __  1 

( 

\  9 

V 

Z  I  r  r 

fj 

Denn  so  du  willt  das  se  -  hen  an, 


Q  _  < 

r 

V  *  f  p  r  r  A  f  f  72  A 

V 

z  r  r  p  &  h  h  & 

r  1  i  ^  r  ^ 

Was  Siind  und  Un  -  recht  ist  ge  -  than. 


F  ,  J  _ i  ♦ 

=2 

.t 

V  *S.  J  &  cJ 

v 

Z  _ LZ  3  &  72  ^ 

KJ 

p^  r~  Gr  CS  ** 

Wer  kann,  Herr,  fiir  dir  blei  ben. 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  REFORMATION  261 


are  found  in  his  setting  of  the  Apostles’  Creed.  Others 
again,  like  his  well-known  “  Ein  feste  Burg  ist  unser 
Gott,”  are  very  clear  in  their  tonality. 

These  tunes  of  Luther  in  their  original  form  lack 
mensural  notation,  lacking  the  bars,  although  whole  notes, 
half  notes  and  quarter  notes  are  used. 

Aside  from  a  few  in  the  key  of  G,  which  calls  for  FJf, 
all  these  tunes  are  practically  confined  to  the  white  keys 
of  the  organ. 

Taken  as  a  whole  they  give  evidence  that  in  churchly 
circles  the  transition  from  mediaeval  modes  to  modern 
tonality  had  by  no  means  been  fully  made.  We  know 
that  the  standardization  of  notation  was  in  a  particularly 
backward  state  in  Germany  at  this  time. 

( d )  Harmonization  of  Tunes  Simplified.  While  choral 
counterpoint  led  to  elaboration,  the  limitations  of  popular 
participation  made  for  simplicity  and  strength.  The 
growing  vogue  of  the  simple  or  familiar  style  among  the 
northern  composers  brought  a  plain  harmonization,  note 
for  note,  chord  by  chord,  for  these  popular  hymn  tunes. 

( e )  Luther’s  Breadth  of  Mind  and  Taste.  His  broad 
sanity  left  little  place  for  the  narrow  fanaticism  of 
Zwingli,  the  Swiss  Reformer,  under  whose  leadership  not 
only  the  organ  and  other  instruments  were  shut  out  from 
the  churches,  but  congregational  song  itself  was  for¬ 
bidden.  For  this  reason  the  polyphonic  music  was  not 
entirely  cast  aside  by  Luther.  He  was  an  admirer  of 
much  of  it.  He  did  not  insist  on  vernacular  hymns  only, 
but  allowed  and  argued  for  the  occasional  use  of  the  Latin. 
Hence  the  two  tendencies  in  German  church  music  were 
developing  side  by  side :  ( i )  the  polyphonic  choral  music 
which  found  its  culmination  both  vocally  and  instru- 
mentally  in  the  compositions  of  J.  Sebastian  Bach  and 
(2)  the  people’s  hymn  tune  which  found  its  first  expres- 


262  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUBCH  MUSIC 


sion  in  the  chorale,  or  hymn  tune,  and  later  in  the 
pietistic  folk-song. 

3.  The  Place  of  Music  Under  Zwingli  and  Calvin 

While  Luther,  despite  his  strong  reaction  against  the 
errors  and  vices  of  the  Romish  Church,  was  careful  to 
retain  all  that  was  good  in  the  Catholic  service  and  in  its 
music,  as  was  also  the  case  with  the  English  reformers 
under  Henry  the  Eighth  and  his  successors,  Zwingli  and 
Calvin  took  an  extreme  position  in  opposition  to  all  that 
was  Romish  in  doctrine  and  worship. 

(a)  Zwingli' s  Opposition  to  Church  Music.  Zwingli 
and  his  associates  in  particular  went  to  extremes  in  their 
hatred  of  Roman  doctrines  and  customs.  Fortunate  in 
their  opposition  to  the  doctrine  of  Transubstantiation  as 
held  by  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  to  the  compro¬ 
mise  Lutheran  doctrine  of  Consubstantiation,  they  were 
not  so  well  advised  in  their  rejection  of  all  church  song, 
for  in  this  they  flouted  the  example  of  their  Lord  in  clos¬ 
ing  the  newly  instituted  rite  of  the  Eucharist.5  Nearly  a 
century  elapsed  before  church  music  entirely  recovered  its 
place  in  the  Reformed  Churches  of  Eastern  Switzerland. 

( b )  Calvin's  Attitude  Towards  Church  Music.  Calvin 
took  a  much  less  extreme  attitude,  but  by  no  means  imi¬ 
tated  Luther’s  devotion  to  church  music.  He  shut  out 
the  choral  part  of  the  church  service  entirely.  He  pro¬ 
vided  for  congregational  singing  in  unison  only,  but  con¬ 
fined  it  to  metrical  versions  of  the  psalms  and  canticles. 

6  When  Zwingli  appeared  before  the  City  Council  of  the  city  of 
Zurich  to  urge  the  abolition  of  church  song,  he  sang  his  plea. 
When  objection  was  raised  to  his  method  of  presentation,  he 
replied,  “  If  you  find  my  presentation  of  the  case  absurd,  why 
should  any  one  insist  on  approaching  the  great  God  after  the  same 
absurd  fashion?”  Need  it  be  said  that  they  accepted  his  views 
and  the  voice  of  song  was  silent  in  Zurich  until  1598. 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  REFORMATION  263 


He  went  back  to  the  position  of  the  early  Church  and  shut 
out  instrumental  music  and  accompaniment  entirely.  This 
radical  attitude  was  to  have  an  unfortunate  tendency  in 
the  Reformed  churches.  Thus  the  musical  part  of  the 
Reformed  service  was  exceedingly  limited  and  gave  little 
opportunity  for  development. 

(c)  The  Genevan  Psalter  and  Tunes.  Calvin  had 
gathered  some  tunes  in  Strassburg,  possibly  some  of  the 
French  tunes  associated  with  Marot’s  psalms;  it  is  also 
fairly  certain  that  some  were  of  German  origin.  Begin¬ 
ning  with  a  nucleus  of  the  Marot  psalms  in  1839  and  1842 
the  Genevan  Psalter  gradually  developed  from  that  time 
until  1562  under  the  literary  labours  of  Marot  and  Beza 
and  the  musical  editorship  of  Louis  Bourgeois.  The 
latter  simply  gathered  up  melodies  from  various  sources, 
from  Gregorian  and  from  German  and  French  folk-songs, 
probably  in  some  cases  combining  phrases  from  several 
current  melodies.  Bourgeois  was  a  collator,  not  a  com¬ 
poser  of  melodies.  There  was  no  thought  of  originality 
or  pride  of  composership.  The  ascription  of  “  Old 
Hundredth  ”  to  Bourgeois  has  therefore  no  actual  basis. 
It  may  be  Gregorian  in  origin,  but  more  probably  had  its 
rise  among  the  people  of  France. 

There  were  125  tunes  in  the  Psalter  of  1562.  There 
were  many  changes  in  several  editions  between  1542  and 
1562.  Tunes  had  been  tried  out  and  dropped ;  others  had 
been  changed ;  a  few  were  wedded  to  other  psalms  than 
those  with  which  they  had  first  appeared.  But  after  1562 
there  were  no  more  changes.  It  became  a  fixed  and  un¬ 
changeable  collection,  a  sacrosanct  institution  that  might 
not  be  touched.  The  attitude  of  the  Egyptian  priests  to- 
.  wards  their  music  was  duplicated  in  the  liturgy  haters  of 
Geneva. 

( d )  The  Harmonization  of  the  Genevan  Psalter. 


264  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Goudimel,  the  teacher  of  Palestrina,  and  his  forerunner 
in  the  simple  style  of  counterpoint,  issued  a  harmonization 
of  psalm  tunes  for  the  churches  of  the  Reformed  faith, 
including  England.  As  was  customary  at  that  time,  the 
melody  appeared  in  the  tenor,  but  presently  it  was  trans¬ 
ferred  to  the  discant,  or  soprano,  as  more  prominent  and 
accessible  to  the  common  people.  Calvin  did  not  allow 
this  four-part  harmony  to  be  sung  in  public  service.  The 
melody  was  still  sung  in  unison. 

4.  Subsequent  Development  of  the  German 

Chorale 

We  have  seen  that  the  further  development  of  the 
Genevan  tunes  was  checked  and  found  further  develop¬ 
ment  in  Great  Britain.  This  was  by  no  means  true  of 
the  German  chorale  as  originated  by  Luther  and  Walther. 

(a)  Transfer  of  Melody  to  the  Discant.  While  Wal¬ 
ther  had  given  folk-tone  to  the  melodies  to  be  sung  by  the 
people,  he  had  still  kept  them  in  the  tenor,  as  had  been 
the  custom.  This  made  it  difficult  for  the  people  to  sing 
the  tune  as  it  was  more  or  less  submerged  by  the  higher 
discant  of  the  choir  and  by  the  organ  accompaniment.  It 
was  Lucas  Osiander  (1534-1604)  who  gave  the  initial 
impulse  to  the  transfer  of  the  people’s  melody  to  the 
discant,  or  soprano  in  his  “  Geistliche  Lieder  und  Psal- 
men  ”  (1586).  The  harmony  was  simplified  and  popu¬ 
larized.  Others  followed  the  new  tendency,  notably  the 
two  Prsetorius’  and  others  of  Hamburg,  Hans  Leo 
Hassler  of  Niirnberg,  Johann  Eccard  of  Berlin. 

( h )  Arrangers  Become  Composers.  About  this  time, 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  harmonizers  of 
accepted  existent  melodies  began  to  be  actual  composers, 
originating  their  own  tunes.  Instead  of  confining  them¬ 
selves  to  the  diatonic  scale  in  C,  chromatic  tones  were 


THE  MUSIC  OF  THE  REFORMATION  265 


utilized  to  produce  richer  harmony  and  to  vary  them  by 
modulation  to  other  keys. 

Among  those  who  developed  this  more  modern  style, 
and  some  of  whose  work  is  still  used  in  Germany,  Great 
Britain  and  America  are  Johann  Criiger  (1598-1662)  of 
Berlin,  and  Johann  Rudolph  Ahle  (1625-1673)  of  Erfurt 
and  Miihlhausen,  tunes  by  both  of  whom  are  still  sung  in 
our  churches. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  while  J.  Sebastian  Bach  re¬ 
harmonized  and  arranged  many  of  these  chorales  for  his 
cantatas,  despite  his  fertility,  he  furnished  no  chorale  of 
his  own  composition  for  the  use  of  the  Christian  Church. 

(c)  Syllabizing  the  Chorales.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
seventeenth  century,  owing  to  the  reaction  produced  by 
the  introduction  of  operatic  melodies  in  dance  rhythms 
as  church  melodies,  arrangements  began  to  appear  in 
which  the  folk-song  rhythms,  which  had  been  perpetuated 
till  then,  were  excluded  and  the  melodies  were  syllabized, 
i.  e.y  the  notes  were  made  of  equal  length  and  triple  time 
no  longer  used.6  This  had  already  been  done  in  the  tunes 
used  by  the  Reformed  churches  in  England. 

(d)  The  End  of  the  Chorale  Epoch.  While  here  and 
there  during  the  next  two  centuries  a  chorale  has  been 
composed  that  found  wide  use,  the  interest  in  their  com¬ 
position  subsided.  There  seemed  slight  impulse  to  add 
to  the  great  wealth  of  German  hymn  tunes  already 
provided. 

( e )  German  Times  Still  in  Use.  The  vitality  of  these 
German  chorales  and  hymn  tunes  and  their  wide  use  in 
other  countries  is  quite  remarkable.  It  is  worthy  of  re- 

6  The  rhythmical  movement  of  the  Chorales  was  eliminated  first 
by  Wolfgang  Carl  Briegel  in  1687  in  his  “  Darmstadter  Gesang 
und  Choral  Buch  ”  from  which  both  British  and  American 
hymnal  editors  have  borrowed  largely. 


266  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


mark  that  such  heavy  chorales  as  Nicolai’s  “  Wie  schoen 
leuchtet  der  Morgenstern  ”  and  “  Wachet  auf,  ruft  uns 
die  Stimme  ”  and  even  “  Ein  feste  Burg,”  the  most  con¬ 
stantly  used  in  Germany,  have  found  little  actual  accept¬ 
ability  and  use  in  other  countries.  They  were  too  pecu¬ 
liarly  German  in  their  slowness  and  weight.  But  scores 
and  scores  of  the  less  heavy  tunes  are  in  evidence  in 
British  and  American  hymnals.  No  less  than  104  are 
used  in  the  Scottish  Psalters.  “  Hymns  Ancient  and 
Modern  ”  has  92.  The  revised  edition  of  the  Presby¬ 
terian  “  Plymnal  ”  has  82.  The  Canadian  Episcopal 
“  New  Hymnal  ”  has  82.  “  The  Methodist  Hymnal  ” 

has  63.  Even  the  United  Brethren  “  Sanctuary  Hymnal  ” 
has  54. 

Among  the  more  widely  used,  found  in  most  of  our 
hymnals,  are  the  following: 


Angelus 
Austria 
All  Saints 

Bremen 

Breslau 

Dix 

Ein  feste  Burg 

Ellacombe 

Franconia 

Greenland 

Hursley 

Lyons 

Mendelssohn 

Munich 

Nun  Danket  alle  Gott 

Passions-Chorale 

Spohr 

St.  Theodulph 
Swabia 


by  Georg  Josephi. 
by  Franz  Joseph  Haydn, 
originally  appearing  in  the  Darm- 
stadter  Gesangbuch. 
by  Melchior  Vulpius. 
in  Psalmodia  Sacra, 
by  Conrad  Kocher. 
by  Martin  Luther, 
in  Conrad  Kocher’s  Zionsharfe. 
in  Johann  Muller’s  Choralbuch. 
by  Johann  Michael  Haydn, 
by  Peter  Ritter, 
by  J.  Michael  Haydn, 
by  Felix  Mendelssohn-Bartholdi. 
originally  appearing  in  the  Wiir- 
temberger  Gesangbuch. 
by  Johann  Criiger. 
by  H.  L.  Hassler. 
by  Louis  Spohr. 
by  Melchior  Teschner. 
in  Johann  Criiger ’s  Praxis  Pietatis. 


THE  MUSIC  OP  THE  REFORMATION  267 


This  list  does  not  include  the  arrangements  from  the  Ger¬ 
man  by  Lowell  Mason. 

( d )  The  Pietistic  Folk-song.  But  the  piety  of  the  Ger¬ 
man  people  was  not  fully  expressed  by  these  stately 
church  tunes  and  a  religious  folk-song,  somewhat  akin  to 
our  Gospel  songs,  quietly  developed  among  the  German 
people.  While  these  songs  lack  the  majesty  of  most  of 
the  chorales,  they  have  a  devoutness  all  their  own. 

They  are  largely  the  product  of  the  Pietistic  movement 
and  express  its  character.  Such  are :  “  Ich  will  streben 
nach  dem  Leben,”  “  Lobt  den  Herrn  ”  by  E.  H.  Rolle, 
“  Ich  bete  an  die  Macht  der  Liebe  ”  by  Bortniansky, 
“  Wie  wird  uns  sein,”  “  Sei  getreu  bis  in  den  Tod  ”  (both 
from  the  “  Briiggener  Lieder  ”),  “  Der  beste  Freund  ist  in 
dem  Himmel  ”  by  Louisa  Reichardt,  “  Hier  ist  mein 
Herz  ”  by  D.  Rappard,  “  Lasst  mich  geh’n  ”  by  K.  Voigt- 
lander,  “  So  nimm  denn  meine  Hande  ”  by  Franz  Silcher 
and  many  others,  all  of  which  are  sung  and  cherished  in 
devout  German  households  generation  after  generation. 
Many  of  the  German  arrangements  of  Lowell  Mason 
were  taken  from  these  simpler  hymn  tunes. 

In  the  last  three  decades,  owing  to  the  introduction  of 
American  gospel  songs,  by  Nonconformist  church  bodies, 
a  new  impulse  has  been  given  to  the  composition  of  this 
pietistic  folk-song.  It  has,  however,  a  stronger  artistic 
tendency  than  either  the  old  religious  folk-songs  or  the 
American  importations. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  While  Palestrina  and  associates  perfected  polyphonic  music 
in  the  South,  what  happened  in  the  North? 

2.  What  activities  were  there  in  vernacular  hymns? 

3.  What  was  the  relation  of  the  German  people  to  the  music 
of  the  church  service? 


268  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


4.  What  relation  had  the  sequences  to  these  vernacular 
hymns  ? 

5.  During  what  century  was  the  high  tide  of  vernacular  song 
and  why  did  ecclesiastical  authorities  encourage  it? 

6.  Whence  did  the  tunes  to  these  hymns  come? 

7.  When  did  these  hymn  tunes  take  on  a  syllabified  form? 

8.  Who  led  in  the  creation  of  a  Czech  hymnology? 

9.  What  musical  resources  were  available  at  the  beginning  of 
the  Reformation? 

10.  Who  were  Luther’s  musical  helpers  and  what  two  tend¬ 
encies  did  they  represent? 

11.  What  were  Luther’s  contributions  in  hymns  and  tunes? 

12.  What  stage  of  musical  development  did  Luther’s  tunes 
represent? 

13.  What  marked  manifestations  of  breadth  of  taste  and  sanity 
of  judgment  did  Luther  display? 

14.  What  was  Zwingli’s  attitude  towards  religious  music? 

15.  In  how  far  did  Calvin  differ  from  him? 

16.  Relate  the  steps  in  the  development  of  the  Genevan  Psalter 
as  regards  psalm  tunes. 

17.  Who  harmonized  the  Genevan  Psalter?  In  what  style,  and 
for  what  purpose? 

18.  What  successive  steps  were  taken  in  the  development  of 
the  German  chorale? 

19.  Why  have  the  most  notable  German  chorales  found  little 
use  outside  of  Germany? 

20.  What  is  the  German  contribution  to  the  hymnals  issued  in 
Great  Britain  and  America? 

21.  What  is  the  character  of  the  Pietistic  Folk-song? 


XX 


THE  ENGLISH  PSALM  TUNE 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  Some  of  these  early  psalm  tunes  very 
likely  appear  in  the  hymnal  in  use.  Have  them  sung  and  fol¬ 
lowed  by  a  typical  German  chorale  in  order  to  give  an  idea  of 
their  difference.  Call  attention  to  the  surviving  tunes  as  listed 
and  actualize  their  age  and  varied  history  to  the  student’s 
imagination. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Ritter,  “  Music  in  England,”  Chapters 
I,  3,  4,  and  io,  Scribner’s  Sons,  N.  Y. ;  Benson,  “  The  English 
Hymn,”  Doran,  N.  Y. ;  Grove,  “  Dictionary  of  Music  and 
Musicians,”  Art.  “Psalmody”  and  “Psalter,”  Presser,  Phila. ; 
Breed,  “  The  History  and  Use  of  Hymns  and  Hymn  Tunes,” 
Revell,  N.  Y. ;  Curwen,  “  Studies  in  Worship  Music,”  Curwen, 
London ;  Dickinson,  “  Music  in  the  Western  Church,”  Scribner’s 
Sons,  N.  Y. ;  Barrett,  “  English  Church  Composers,”  Low, 
London;  Helmore,  “Plain  Song,”  Novello,  London. 

i.  The  Earliest  English  Church  Music 

When  Augustine  and  his  monks  entered  Canterbury, 
they  not  only  inaugurated  the  Roman  sovereignty  over 
the  British  Church  and  changed  the  tonsure  of  its  priests, 
but  substituted  the  Gregorian  system  of  church  music  for 
the  ruder  music  of  the  Britons.  While  this  Roman 
music  controlled  the  greater  urban  churches  and  the 
monasteries,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  village  and  rural 
churches  and  chapels  used  it  to  any  considerable  extent. 
It  is  certain  that  the  people’s  secular  and  even  religious 
songs  retained  their  ascendency  over  the  populace  and  that 
the  ecclesiastical  and  the  popular  music  developed  side 
by  side  each  in  its  own  style,  the  latter  affecting  the 
former,  rather  than  the  reverse.1  There  are  indications 

*“1  have  been  unable  to  trace  a  single  instance  of  a  popular 
air  derived  from  such  a  source,”  i.  e.,  Church  Plain  Song. — 
Chappel,  “  Popular  Music  of  the  Olden  Time.” 

269 


270  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


that  the  Church  for  educational  and  propagandist  pur¬ 
poses  used  the  popular  ballad  tunes.2 

Not  only  did  the  Church  use  the  people’s  melodies  for 
its  own  purposes  outside  of  the  church  service,  but  they 
were  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  church  service  itself.3 

We  may  assume  that  it  was  difficult  to  keep  the 
Gregorian  melodies  pure  from  this  outside  influence. 
This  was  easier  in  the  great  monastic  centers,  and  the 
chief  blow  the  Gregorian  system  received  was  when 
Henry  VIII  suppressed  the  monastic  foundations  and 
sequestrated  their  immense  estates;  the  next  was  when 
its  manuscripts  were  destroyed  during  the  ascendency  of 
the  Puritans. 

As  we  have  seen,  this  Plain  Song,  as  the  Gregorian 
melodies  have  been  called,  had  no  particular  rhythm  and 
but  incidental  form.  It  was  not  simply  a  chant,  how¬ 
ever,  but  had  very  considerable  melodic  variety.  It  had 
developed  quite  elaborate  musical  phrases  sung  to  one 
syllable,  called  melisma,  which  demanded  very  consider¬ 
able  vocal  skill,  much  greater  than  for  the  singing  of  the 
more  tuneful  popular  ballads. 

This  secular  body  of  folk-songs,  and  the  undoubted 
religious  folk-songs  of  the  Lollards,  or  Wycliffites,  found 
their  opportunity  under  the  political  Reformation  of 
Henry  VIII.  Influences  from  without  cooperated  very 
powerfully  in  the  same  lines  of  development. 

2  “Aldheim,  the  Saxon  Bishop  of  Sherborne,  in  order  to  secure 
the  attention  of  his  rude  neighbours,  was  wont  to  stand  on  a 
bridge,  and  to  sing  his  religious  instructions  to  them  in  the  form 
of  ballads.” — Ritter,  “  Music  in  England.” 

3  “  William  of  Malmesbury  tells  us  that  when  Thomas,  the  first 
Norman  archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  was  very  fond  of  music, 
and  devoted  much  time  to  its  study,  heard  any  of  the  minstrels 
sing  a  tune  which  pleased  him,  he  adopted  it  and  formed  it  for 
the  use  of  the  church.” — Ritter,  “  Music  in  England.” 


THE  ENGLISH  PSALM  TUNE 


271 


2.  The  Psalm  Tunes 

(a)  The  Rise  of  Metrical  Versions  of  the  Psalms. 
The  influence  of  Marot’s  metrical  versions  of  some  of  the 
psalms  was  immediately  felt  in  England,  where,  even  be¬ 
fore  they  were  actually  published  in  France,  Miles  Cover- 
dale,  Bishop  of  Exeter,  the  translator  of  the  Bible  into 
the  vernacular,  issued  thirteen  psalms  in  metrical  form. 
The  leaflet  was  the  beginning  of  English  psalmody, 
although  it  had  a  very  limited  use. 

There  seem  to  have  been  Lollard  versions  preceding 
all  these,  but  there  is  no  absolute  proof.  Buchanan’s 
version  in  Latin  appealed  to  scholarly  persons  of  every 
class,  for  Latin  was  still  a  living  language  among  in¬ 
tellectual  people;  but  his  version  did  not  get  into  actual 
use. 

Thomas  Sternhold,  a  groom  of  the  chamber  in  the 
court  of  Henry  VIII,  translated  some  of  the  psalms  for 
use  in  his  private  devotions  about  1547,  although  we  do 
not  know  the  exact  date  of  his  first  edition,  containing 
nineteen  psalms,  which  was  issued  at  the  suggestion  of 
King  Edward  and  dedicated  to  him.  In  1549  an  enlarged 
edition  containing  thirty-seven  psalms  appeared.  In  1551 
another  edition  was  published  in  which  the  Rev.  John 
Hopkins  appears  as  a  contributor.  It  was  this  edition 
which  proved  to  be  the  foundation  not  only  of  the  English 
Psalter,  but  of  the  Scottish  as  well.  These  psalms  were 
used  to  some  extent  in  worship.  Burnet  in  his  “  History 
of  the  Reformation  ”  says  they  “  were  much  sung  by  all 
who  loved  the  reformation  and  in  many  places  used  in 
churches.” 

In  1563  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  issued  the  entire  Book 
of  Psalms  adding  versions  of  the  Creed,  the  Lord’s 
Prayer,  the  Ten  Commandments,  the  Veni  Creator  and 
Te  Deum.  In  it  were  included  translations  of  ancient 


272  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


hymns  and  even  a  few  originals.  The  Genevan  attitude 
of  excluding  hymns  had  evidently  not  reached  England  as 
yet.  This  complete  edition  was  supplied  “  with  apt  notes 
to  sing  them  withal/’  to  quote  the  title  page. 

These  metrical  psalms  were  exceedingly  popular  in 
England,  as  they  had  been  in  France,  until  the  ecclesias¬ 
tical  authorities  had  forbidden  their  use. 

In  England  there  was  no  such  ban,  a  psalm  in  the  ver¬ 
nacular  being  frequently  sung  after  the  sermon.  Strype 
in  his  contemporary  annals  refers  to  the  spread  of  psalm 
singing  throughout  England.4 

( b )  The  Psalter  with  Tunes.  The  English  and  Scotch 
refugees,  returning  from  Geneva  after  Bloody  Mary’s 
death  in  1558,  brought  not  only  the  narrow  artistic  at¬ 
titude  of  that  community,  which  banned  all  instruments 
from  public  worship  and  confined  itself  exclusively  to  the 
singing  of  psalms,  but  also  the  tunes  to  which  the  psalms 
had  been  sung  in  Geneva.  Among  others  they  introduced 
“  Old  Hundredth,”  and  “  St.  Michael,”  which  have  sur¬ 
vived  to  the  present  day. 

In  1549  the  whole  Book  of  Psalms  by  Robert  Cowley 
appeared.  In  his  preface  he  refers  to  other  previous 
translations  which  had  passages  “  obscure  and  hard,” 
which  indicates  that  a  number  of  psalters  had  appeared, 
probably  Lollard.  It  was  all  in  Common  Meter,  but  the 
stanzas  were  in  two  lines  with  fourteen  (eight  plus  six) 
syllables  to  the  line.  The  following  tune  sufficed  for  the 
whole  psalter: 

4  “  As  soon  as  they  commenced  singing  in  London,  immediately 
not  only  the  churches  in  the  neighbourhood,  but  even  the  towns 
far  distant  began  to  vie  with  each  other,  in  the  practice.  You 
may  now  sometimes  see  at  Paul’s  Cross,  after  the  service,  six 
thousand  persons,  young  and  old,  of  all  sexes,  singing  together; 
this  sadly  annoys  the  mass  priests,  for  they  perceive  that  by  this 
means  the  sacred  discourse  sinks  more  deeply  into  the  minds  of 
men.” 


THE  ENGLISH  PSALM  TUNE 


273 


- j— =— , 

— 1  .  ■  !  - - — - a 

A 

- «  » ^ 

T---i  ^  .<<i  -mm 

22  ^  3? 22 

7 - ^  ■t' & 

^  ni  1 

1  (  1  1 

34  J&.  •  -£2-  ^2.  A  -  J-  ^ 

rv  .in  •  \ n 

C  (22_ p  : 

.  --  ---  p 

22  t~  .  t  22  7 

» 1 

I  ’  p 

This  is  the  earliest  music  set  to  a  metrical  psalm  as  yet 
found.  The  melody  is  not  in  the  treble,  but  in  the  tenor 
part.  The  bar  in  the  middle  gives  it  the  form  of  the 
double  chant  which  did  not  come  into  general  use  until 
a  century  later.  It  is  in  the  seventh  ecclesiastical  mode, 
and  it  shows  that  the  hymn  tune  as  evolved  on  the  con¬ 
tinent  had  not  yet  come  into  use  in  England. 

A  number  of  editions  of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  with 
notes  were  issued. 

Francys  Seagar’s  Psalter,  containing  two  tunes  for 
nineteen  psalms,  somewhat  in  motet  style  (1553). 

John  Crispin’s  Psalter,  of  Geneva,  containing  fifty- 
one  psalms  each  with  its  own  tune  (1556). 

John  Daye’s  Psalter,  Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  complete 
with  sixty-five  tunes  of  which  thirty-eight  were  new 
(1562). 

All  of  them  were  in  the  ecclesiastical  modes.  A  sep¬ 
arate  edition  about  the  same  time  supplied  harmony  in 
four  parts.  It  contained  141  compositions,  many  of  them 
settings  of  the  same  tune  by  different  composers. 

Among  the  harmonizers  was  Thomas  Tallis,  “  The 


274  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Father  of  English  Cathedral  Music.”  He  was  royal 
chapel  master  under  Henry  VIII,  Edward  VI,  Mary,  and 
Elizabeth. 

John  Daye’s  Psalter  (1567  or  1568),  containing  all 
the  psalms  as  prepared  by  Archbishop  Parker,  with  tunes 
by  English  composers  including  twelve  by  Tallis.  For 
some  unknown  reason  it  was  never  actually  published, 
although  the  version  was  superior  to  that  of  Sternhold 
and  Hopkins,  1567  or  1568. 

In  this  collection  was  the  tune  which  in  an  abridged 
form  we  still  use  as  “  Tallis’  Evening  Hymn.”  In  the 
same  book  appeared  “  Tallis  ”  or  “  Ordinal  ”  by  the  great 
composer,  not  so  frequently  used,  but  eulogized  by  Rev. 
W.  H.  Havergal,  father  of  Frances  Ridley  Havergal,  who 
said  of  it,  “  This  is  simplicity  itself.  A  child  may  sing  it, 
while  manly  genius  will  admire  it.” 

In  1592  appeared  Thomas  Estes’  psalter  with  fifty- 
seven  tunes,  forty-eight  accepted  church  tunes  and  nine 
new  ones,  besides  the  “  Spiritual  Songs  and  Hymns.”  It 
was  the  first  psalter  to  whose  tunes  names  were  given. 
In  1621  Thomas  Ravenscroft  issued  his  psalter,  which  is 
noteworthy  because  of  two  psalm  tunes  by  John  Milton. 

There  were  quite  a  number  of  psalters  issued  by 
various  composers  after  Estes  and  Ravenscroft,  but  none 
call  for  special  mention  until  we  reach  that  of  Playford 
in  1671  and  1677,  of  which  new  editions  were  issued  from 
time  to  time  for  a  century.  It  was  also  notable  because 
it  was  the  basis  of  the  New  England  Psalmody,  being 
almost  bodily  reprinted  by  various  compilers  over  the 
sea  and  finding  wide  use  there. 

Another  psalm  tune  writer  of  considerable  accepta¬ 
bility  was  William  Tansur  whose  “The  Royal  Melody 
Compleat,”  issued  in  1735,  had  wide  use  and  was  liberally 
reprinted  in  New  England.  His  tunes  showed  the  tend- 


THE  ENGLISH  PSALM  TUNE 


275 


ency  of  the  age  in  which  he  wrought  towards  smooth 
melodies  and  easy  harmonies.  He  was  a  teacher  of 
psalmody  and  studied  practicability.  His  books  contained 
the  elements  of  music  which  were  very  useful  on  both 
sides  of  the  sea. 

Aaron  Williams,  whose  “  St.  Thomas  ”  is  still  a  stand¬ 
ard  tune  in  our  hymnals,  lacked  little  of  being  as  popular 
on  both  sides  of  the  sea  as  Tansur.  His  “  Universal 
Psalmodist  ”  appeared  in  1765.  He  too  was  a  teacher 
of  psalmody.5  While  representing  a  generation  later 
than  Tansur,  he  belonged  to  the  same  school  and  had  the 
same  current  needs  to  supply. 

( c )  Metrical  Version  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles. 
Another  composer  of  this  period  was  Dr.  Christopher 
Tye,  who  wrote  a  metrical  version  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  “  with  notes  to  eche  chapter  ”  and  issued  it  in 
1 553*  The  work  was  left  a  torso,  only  fourteen  chapters 
being  published.  Windsor,  Winchester  Old,  and  Dundee 
are  supposed  to  be  adaptations  of  tunes  published  in  this 
work.  That  he  was  a  musician  of  high  standing  is 
evident  from  the  fact  that  in  Rowley’s  play  “  Henry 
VIII,”  the  following  allusion  is  made: 

“  England  one  God,  one  truth,  one  doctor  hath 
For  Musicke’s  art,  and  that  is  Doctor  Tye, 

Admired  for  skill  in  musicke’s  harmony.” 

Anthony  Wood  declared  that  Tye  restored  church 
music  after  it  had  been  almost  ruined  by  the  dissolution 
of  the  monasteries  in  the  time  of  Henry  VIII. 

( d )  The  Scottish  Psalter.  The  development  of  psalm- 

5  He  also  recommended  the  introduction  of  pipe  organs  “  which 
are  now  very  convenient  to  drown  the  hideous  cries  of  the 
people.” 


276  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


ody  in  Scotland  followed  a  course  of  its  own.  The 
nucleus  of  its  Psalter  was  found  in  the  “  Order  of 
Geneva,”  1556,  which  contained  forty-four  of  the  psalms 
of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  and  seven  new  renderings  by 
W.  Whittingham.  Forty-two  of  its  tunes  were  also 
accepted. 

In  1564  the  complete  Scottish  Psalter  was  issued  con¬ 
taining  eighty-six  psalms  by  Sternhold  and  Hopkins, 
forty-three  added  by  Genevan  Exiles  and  twenty-one 
from  Scottish  sources.  It  had  one  hundred  and  five 
tunes,  two  more  than  the  English  Psalter  of  1562. 
Many  editions  of  this  Psalter  appeared.  The  edition  of 
1596  contains  a  full  set  of  metrical  doxologies,  named 
“  conclusions.” 

The  edition  of  1615  introduces  twelve  four  line  tunes 
called  “  common  tunes  ”  with  a  name  to  each.  Its  notes 
were  equalized  in  length  for  the  first  time,  previous  edi¬ 
tions  having  been  very  irregular  in  usage  in  this  par¬ 
ticular. 

All  these  editions  gave  nothing  more  than  the  melodies. 
In  1629  the  “  Common  Tunes  ”  were  increased  to  fifteen 
and  harmonized  in  four  parts.  One  of  them  was  a 
“  Report  ”  tune,  i.  e.,  a  fugue,  a  reappearance  of  the  old 
polyphony  which  was  to  prove  unfortunate  a  century 
later.  It  was  not  until  the  edition  of  1635  that  all  the 
tunes  are  harmonized.  It  contained  thirty-one  “  Com¬ 
mon  Tunes  ”  and  eight  “  Reports  ”  or  fugues. 

In  1650  a  new  metrical  version  of  the  Psalms  was 
officially  adopted  and,  as  in  England,  was  printed  without 
music.  There  was  no  separate  book  of  tunes  issued  and 
the  music  of  the  Scottish  Church  went  into  decay,  only 
half  a  dozen  of  its  old  tunes  being  retained  in  use. 

In  the  long  period  between  1565  and  1700  there  were 
only  a  few  psalm  tune  composers  whose  melodies  have 


THE  ENGLISH  PSALM  TUNE 


277 


come  down  to  us.  Orlando  Gibbons  (1583-1625)  wrote 
“Angels’  Song”  in  1623.  William  Croft  (1678-1727) 
still  is  represented  in  our  hymnals  with  “  Hanover  ”  and 
“  St.  Anne’s,”  two  majestic  tunes. 

(e)  Characteristics  of  the  Psalm  Tunes.  In  reviewing 
the  psalm  tunes  we  find  the  following  characteristics : 

(1)  They  were  syllabic,  a  note  to  every  syllable,  ac¬ 
cording  to  the  rule  laid  down  by  Archbishop  Cranmer. 
This  gave  weight  and  dignity  to  the  tunes.  Neither  the 
Genevan  nor  the  Gregorian  tunes  were  entirely  syllabic, 
nor  had  they  notes  of  equal  value.  “  Old  Hundredth,” 
for  instance,  originally  was 


rfhr-r- 

— 1 - -1 — 

:2 lL9t  1 

i  1  3  1  ' 

ft  \  .A  j-o 

— j  -  ■ 

4  ...g 

.  •  J* — J — 

which,  if  not  so  stately,  had  a  more  vigorous  movement. 
Cranmer’s  rule  was  a  protest  against  the  florid  sequence 
tunes  of  the  old  Church  which  made  participation  by  the 
people  impossible. 

(2)  Their  rhythm  was  very  plain  and  severe,  only 
common  time  being  used.  When  Croft  wrote  “  Han¬ 
over  ”  in  1708  in  triple  time,  it  was  a  sign  of  a  coming 
change  in  style. 

(3)  There  was  a  radical  change  of  chord  with  every 
note  of  the  melody.  This  gave  a  strong  momentum  and 
definite  progress  to  the  tunes. 

(4)  The  harmony  was  distinctly  contrapuntal,  i.  e.y  the 
parts  moved  independent  of  the  melody  in  the  general 
simple  style  represented  by  Goudimel’s  harmonization  of 
the  tunes  of  the  Genevan  Psalter.  He  was  not  so  much 
the  model,  as  the  representative  with  Tallis  of  the  general 
current  method  of  harmonizing. 

(5)  The  melodic  structure  was  simple,  but  well  marked 
and  symmetrical.  The  cadences,  both  imperfect  and  per- 


278  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


feet,  were  well  prepared,  and  accentuated  the  joints  of 
the  melodic  structure. 

(/)  Surviving  Psalm  Tunes.  The  following  tunes  are 
survivals  of  that  old  psalmody  of  the  sixteenth  and  seven¬ 
teenth  centuries : 


Hanover,  St  Anne. 

Rochester,  The  Old  137th. 
Winchester  Old,  The  Old  120th. 

Old  Hundredth,  St.  Michael. 
Angels’  Song,  Gibbons. 
Ravenscroft’s  Psalter  Bristol,  St.  David. 

Scottish  Psalter  Dundee. 

Thomas  Tallis  Tallis’  Evening  Hymn,  Tallis’  Or¬ 

dinal. 


Wm.  Croft 
Daye’s  Psalter 
Este’s  Psalter 
Genevan  Psalter 
Orlando  Gibbons 


(g)  The  Dark  Age  of  Psalmody.  But  this  period  from 
the  completion  of  the  psalter  by  Sternhold  and  Hopkins 
to  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  was  very  barren 
from  a  musical  point  of  view  and  this  for  many  reasons. 

(1)  This  Psalter  was  very  widely  introduced  and  being 
complete  in  text  and  tunes  became  a  sacred  tradition  that 
could  not  easily  be  changed,  as  often  had  been  done 
before.  There  wasj  therefore,  little  occasion  for  the 
writing  of  new  tunes. 

(2)  Moreover,  the  times  were  troubled.  The  contest 
between  Puritan  and  Cavalier  was  filling  the  land  with 
confusion  and  disorder. 

(3)  The  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  version,  with  its 
grievous  faults  of  accent  and  of  diction,  and  its  almost 
utter  lack  of  poetic  merit,  had  to  give  place  to  Rous’  ver¬ 
sion,  which,  with  all  its  literary  improvements,  had  two 
fatal  faults  musically :  it  was  published  without  music  and 
was  largely  written  in  common  meter,  giving  little  op¬ 
portunity  for  the  many  tunes  of  other  meters. 

(4)  Books  were  few  during  the  troubled  times  and  the 


THE  ENGLISH  PSALM  TUNE 


279 


lining  of  hymns,  that  is,  the  reading  of  each  line  before  it 
was  sung,  was  generally  introduced.  What  a  handicap 
to  the  musical  part  of  the  service  this  was  can  easily  be 
imagined.  This  unfortunate  custom  was  transplanted  to 
America  and  only  disappeared  entirely  after  the  Civil 
War. 

(5)  The  profoundest  reason  of  all  was  the  decadence 
of  religion  not  only  in  the  State  Church  but  among  the 
Nonconformists  as  well.  With  the  former  the  ritual  had 
become  a  mere  mechanism  and  a  superstition  and 
preaching  was  secular  in  spirit  and  perfunctory  in  man¬ 
ner;  with  the  latter  a  rigid  orthodoxy  and  pharisaical 
emphasis  on  traditional  rules  of  conduct  had  displaced  the 
former  spirituality  and  fervour.  There  was  little  religious 
vitality  to  give  urge  to  musical  progress  nor  religious 
emotion  that  demanded  expression.  Music  was  at  a  very 
low  ebb  7  until  the  Wesleyan  movement  gave  a  new  re¬ 
ligious  impetus.  Watts’  new  version  had  won  esteem, 
and  his  hymns  were  more  and  more  widely  accepted,  but 
it  was  not  until  the  Wesleys  inspired  new  tunes  to  these 
new  hymns  that  a  fresh  tide  of  musical  life  appeared. 

7  James  Leman  in  1730  A.  d.  depicted  the  condition  of  psalm 
singing  as  follows :  “  Though  we  have  several  very  good  and 
easy  tunes,  yet  above  five  or  six  are  commonly  made  use  of,  and 
scarce  one  private  person  in  a  thousand  is  able  to  sing  them 
right:  nay,  even  among  the  darks  (sic)  themselves  there  are 
very  few  who  understand  so  much  of  music  as  to  be  able  to 
sing  many  of  them  either.” 

In  1760  Dr.  Cave  writes  in  his  “Primitive  Christianity”: 
“  There  is  now  no  singing,  either  before  morning  or  evening 
prayer,  nor  any  after  the  sermon,  in  most  churches.  And  in  the 
afternoon,  the  Gloria  Patri  is  often  thought  sufficient  to  be  sung 
after  the  sermon.” — Quoted  in  Curwen’s  “  Studies  in  Worship 
Music.” 


280  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  the  relation  in  England  between  the  Gregorian 
and  folk-song  music  before  the  Reformations? 

2.  What  two  severe  blows  did  the  Gregorian,  or  Plain  Song, 
system  receive? 

3.  What  was  the  melodic  difference  between  the  Plain  Song 
and  the  Psalm  Tune? 

4.  What  was  the  beginning  of  Psalmody? 

5.  When  and  how  did  it  begin  in  England? 

6.  Who  were  the  leading  writers  of  metrical  versions? 

7.  What  were  the  sources  of  psalm  tunes? 

8.  Give  the  leading  psalters  with  notes  issued  during  the 
latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century. 

9.  Trace  the  development  of  the  Scottish  Psalter. 

10.  What  was  the  cause  of  the  decay  in  Scottish  church  music? 

11.  Who  were  the  leading  harmonizers  and  composers  of  early 
psalm  tunes? 

12.  Give  the  leading  characteristics  of  the  psalm  tunes. 

13.  Give  the  causes  of  the  dark  age  of  psalm  singing. 


XXI 


THE  ENGLISH  HYMN  TUNE 

Class  Room  Suggestion:  It  will  be  helpful  to  have  a  typical 
tune  of  each  of  the  several  schools  sung  by  the  class. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Benson,  “  The  English  Hymn,” 
Doran,  N.  Y. ;  Ritter,  “  Music  in  England,”  Chapters  i,  3,  4,  and 
10,  Scribner’s  Sons,  N.  Y. ;  Breed,  “  The  History  and  Use  of 
Hymns  and  Hymn  Tunes,”  Revell,  N.  Y. ;  Dickinson,  “  Music  in 
the  Western  Church,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  N.  Y. ;  Curwen,  “  Studies 
in  Worship  Music,”  Curwen,  London;  Barrett,  “English  Church 
Composers,”  Low,  London. 


1.  The  Transition  from  the  Psalm  to  the 

Hymn  Tune 

The  decadence  of  the  psalm  singing  had  one  fortunate 
issue.  The  need  of  the  human  heart  to  express  its  re¬ 
ligious  feelings  found  vent  in  a  new  and  more  expressive 
direction.  The  lyric  impulse  that  again  and  again  had 
manifested  itself  in  sacred  hymns,  despite  the  shackles  of 
the  Calvinistic  devotion  to  the  Hebrew  Psalms,  found  its 
expression  first  in  freer  and  more  spontaneous  versions, 
as  in  Watts  and  others,  and  then  in  independent  hymns. 
That  these  hymns  were  dignified,  strong,  noble,  sane,  was 
largely  due  to  the  preliminary  course  of  metrical  psalms, 
poor  as  they  often  were  from  a  literary  standpoint.  The 
hymns  were  wider  in  their  range  of  thought  and  feeling, 
more  exactly  the  expression  of  the  modern  Christian  ex¬ 
perience,  but  they  had  none  of  the  extravagant  fanciful¬ 
ness  and  vague  mysticism  found  in  the  Roman  Catholic 
hymns  of  the  centuries  immediately  preceding  the  Refor¬ 
mation,  or  in  the  hymns  of  the  Bohemian  Brethren. 

281 


282  THE  HISTOBY  OF  CHUKCH  MUSIC 


In  the  same  way  the  psalm  tunes  had  prepared  the  way 
for  the  hymn  tune.  As  the  psalm  tunes  were  set  to 
metrical  versions,  they  had  no  structural  difference  from 
the  succeeding  hymn  tunes;  indeed,  we  are  still  using 
many  of  them  with  our  hymns. 

None  the  less,  the  change  of  mental  attitude  which 
made  the  writing  and  use  of  hymns  possible,  ignoring  as 
it  did  the  previous  exclusive  use  of  the  psalms,  could 
not  but  be  felt  in  the  composing  of  hymn  tunes.  Almost 
all  the  typical  rules  and  limitations  of  the  psalm  tune 
were  set  aside. 

Instead  of  a  note  to  a  syllable  two  to  eight  notes  were 
slurred  to  fit  a  given  syllable,  going  back  to  the  poly- 
phonal  usage.  Instead  of  an  exclusive  use  of  common 
time,  triple  time  was  allowed  and  new  rhythms  were  in¬ 
troduced.  The  rule  regarding  a  radical  change  of  chord 
for  every  note  of  the  melody  was  set  aside  and  the  same 
chord  might  be  the  basis  of  a  number  of  successive  notes 
of  the  melody. 

The  former  solemnity  gave  way  to  greater  animation 
and  variety.  There  was  much  more  flexibility  and 
charm,  as  well  as  beauty  in  the  new  tunes.  The  psalm 
tunes  were  exclusively  an  expression  of  communion  with 
God  in  worship  and  penitence ;  the  new  hymn  tunes,  like 
the  hymns  to  which  they  were  set,  expressed  many  other 
religious  emotions. 

2.  Psalmody  and  Hymnody  Compared 

The  gamut  of  religious  feeling  to  be  expressed  had  been 
greatly  extended  by  the  evangelistic  spirit  and  the  em¬ 
phasis  of  subjective  experience  introduced  by  John 
Wesley  and  his  associates.  Even  the  new  versions  of  the 
Psalms  by  Isaac  Watts  and  others  had  a  freedom  and  a 
spiritual  fervency  unknown  before.  The  old  mechanical 


THE  ENGLISH  HYMN  TUNE 


283 


lines,  never  straying  very  far  from  the  literal  phraseology 
of  the  Psalms,  gave  place  to  a  more  spontaneous  and  emo¬ 
tionalized  expression  of  the  general  thought  of  the 
Psalms.  The  Psalms  had  been  deo-centric;  the  doctrine 
of  the  sovereignty  of  God  had  underlain  them  all.  There 
was  no  self-consciousness  in  them.  Even  the  conscious¬ 
ness  of  sin  had  but  added  poignancy  to  the  recognition  of 
the  infinite  perfections  of  the  divine  nature. 

The  new  hymnody  on  the  other  hand  gave  large  recog¬ 
nition  to  the  human  factor  in  religion.  The  hymns  be¬ 
came  personal.  They  were  filled  with  varied  human 
emotion.  Bishop  Christopher  Wordsworth  fulminated 
against  the  first  person  singular  in  modern  hymns  and 
praised  the  pure  objectivity  of  the  elder  hymns,  but  the 
human  element  in  religion  was  to  have  its  lyric  day. 

It  inevitably  followed  that  the  tunes  to  which  these 
new  hymns  were  to  be  sung  should  be  emotional,  spon¬ 
taneous,  popular.  The  new  wine  of  conscious  salvation 
burst  the  old  bottles  of  rigid  psalmody  and  created  a  new 
church  music  of  its  own. 

3.  The  Wesleyan  Stimulus  to  New  Hymn  Tunes 

While  the  new  hymnological  movement  was  not  Meth- 
odistic  in  origin,  although  it  received  a  larger  sweep  of 
thought  and  a  deeper  spiritual  vitality  from  that  organ¬ 
ization,  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  Wesleyan  initiative 
in  regard  to  the  music. 

The  evangelistic  work  of  the  Wesleys  called  for  some¬ 
thing  more  than  merely  devotional,  worshipful  music. 
The  new  hymns  of  personal  experience,  joyous,  inspir¬ 
ing,  estatic,  demanded  emotional  tunes.  The  effort  to 
win  the  unsaved  in  popular  meetings,  large  and  small, 
made  attractive,  spirited,  exciting  singing  extremely 
important.  Hence  the  Wesleys  consciously  encouraged 


284  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


the  composers  of  the  day  in  providing  the  music  that 
they  needed,  as  in  the  case  of  Lampe,  who  wrote  tunes  to 
twenty-four  hymns  by  Chas.  Wesley  issued  in  1746. 

4.  The  Rise  of  Fugue  Tunes 

The  “  reports  ”  of  the  Scotch  were  the  precursors  of 
the  new  fugue  tunes  which  became  the  feature  in  the 
hymn  tunes  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Many  of  these 
elaborate  tunes  had  artistic  value  and  added  musical  in¬ 
terest  to  the  church  services.  They  helped  to  break  up 
the  rigidity  of  the  psalm  tune  conception  of  congrega¬ 
tional  singing  and  opened  wider  resources  and  gave 
greater  freedom  of  melodic  suggestion  to  the  composer. 
But  they  were  more  studied  and  less  spontaneous  in  the 
composition ;  they  called  for  more  attention  in  the  rendi¬ 
tion  to  the  music  itself  at  the  expense  of  the  sentiment  of 
the  hymn.  The  old  temptation  of  solving  melodic  puzzles 
to  which  the  mediseval  composers  yielded,  again  was  felt. 
Moreover,  the  old  contrapuntal  knowledge  and  skill,  the 
result  of  generations  of  apprenticeship,  was  absent  and 
many  of  the  new  fugal  tunes  were  formless,  rude,  and 
unmusical.  In  spite  of  this  lack  of  contrapuntal  train¬ 
ing,  some  of  these  tunes  had  melodic  strength  enough  to 
survive  the  eclipse  of  the  style  as  in  the  case  of  “  Lenox  ” 
by  Lewis  Edson  and  “  Geneva  ”  by  Thomas  Cole. 

5.  The  Florid  School  of  Hymn  Tunes 

Even  the  plain  tunes  became  increasingly  florid  in 
style  until  they  gave  to  the  whole  tendency  the  title  of 
the  “  Florid  School  ”  and  brought  it  into  disrepute. 
This  disrepute  was  not  lessened  by  the  antagonistic  at¬ 
titude  of  the  conservatives,  both  Anglican  and  Noncon¬ 
formists,  who  still  cultivated  the  old  syllabic  tune,  pre¬ 
ferring  its  worshipful  spirit  and  stateliness. 


THE  ENGLISH  HYMN  TUNE 


285 


Many  of  these  new  tunes  deserve  the  criticism  which 
they  met,  being  secular,  complicated  and  impracticable, 
but  the  whole  movement  was  a  very  valuable  one,  break¬ 
ing  down  the  mechanical  rigidity  that  had  already 
wrecked  the  musical  efficiency  of  the  churches  of  Eng¬ 
land.  If  in  the  reaction  against  the  spiritless,  barren 
church  music  in  which  the  psalm  tune  period  ended,  the 
pendulum  swung  too  far,  that  is  the  usual  course  of  the 
human  pendulum. 

Time  has  shorn  away  the  excesses  and  abuses  of  the 
“  Florid  School  ”  and  has  left  us  a  heritage  of  tunes  yet 
effective  whose  non-existence  would  have  impoverished 
our  present  hymnals,  and  made  them  less  efficient.  The 
list  of  surviving  tunes  from  this  period  prove  its  elements 
of  value. 


Adeste  Fideles 

Amsterdam 

Arlington 

Avison 

Cambridge 

Christmas 

Duke  Street 
Easter  Hymn 
Marlow 
Martyrdom 
Miles  Lane 
Philippi 

Rockingham,  Old 

St.  Thomas 

Shirland 

Silver  Street 

Wareham 

Warrington 

Warwick 


by  John  Reading  (?)  (1677-1764). 
by  J.  Nares  (1715-1780). 
by  Thomas  Augustine  Arne  (1710- 
1778). 

by  C.  Avison  (1710-1770). 
by  Ralph  Harrison  (1748-1810). 
by  George  Frederick  Haendel  (1685- 

1759)- 

by  John  Hatton  (?-i793). 
by  John  Worgan  (?)  (1724-1790). 
by  J.  Chetham  (?-i763). 
by  Hugh  Wilson  (1764-1824). 
by  Williams  Shrubsole  (1760-1806). 
by  Samuel  Wesley  (1766-1837). 
by  Edward  Miller  (1731-1807). 
by  Aaron  Williams  (1731-1776). 
by  Samuel  Stanley  (1767-1822). 
by  Isaac  Smith  (1735-1800). 
by  William  Knapp  (1698-1768). 
by  Ralph  Harrison  (1748-1810). 
by  Samuel  Stanley  (1767-1822). 


286  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


6.  The  Modern  Hymn  Tune 

It  would  be  a  mistake  to  conceive  of  these  successive 
schools  of  hymn  tune  composers  as  representing  chrono¬ 
logically  defined  epochs.  They  not  only  had  periods  of 
transition,  but  actually  overlapped  each  other  or  even 
were  contemporary.  New  English  and  Scotch  tunes  ap¬ 
peared  at  the  same  time  that  the  Genevan  and  German 
tunes  were  introduced.  In  the  early  “  reports  ”  and  the 
later  fugue  tunes  the  old  polyphonal  style  persisted. 
Before  the  “  Florid  School  ”  developed,  Croft,  Jeremiah 
Clarke  and  others  were  taking  liberties  with  the  estab¬ 
lished  rules  of  psalm  tune  writing.  After  the  “  Florid 
School  ”  was  widely  recognized,  the  old  diatonic  school 
still  had  many  adherents  and  its  influence  persisted. 
Both  the  progressives  and  the  conservatives  are  ever  in 
evidence.  The  new  hymnological  tide  and  the  “  Florid 
School  ”  tunes  were  both  largely  Nonconformist,  while 
the  Anglicans,  with  their  abiding  conception  of  the  public 
service  as  mainly  worship,  continued  to  use  the  psalm 
tunes  and  opposed  the  new  melodies  as  secular  and  irrev¬ 
erent.  So  that  while  the  new  hymn  tunes  multiplied 
and  grew  ever  more  elaborate  and  emotional,  the  old 
syllabic  tune  persisted  in  the  Established  Church. 

But  this  conservative  element  could  not  wholly  escape 
the  spirit  of  the  age.  Dignity  and  worshipfulness  were 
still  manifest  in  the  general  syllabic  character  of  the  tune 
and  in  its  succession  of  radical  chords  for  every  note,  but 
there  was  a  little  more  rhythmic  emphasis,  a  more  pro¬ 
nounced  musicalness,  a  little  more  emotional  appeal. 
Such  writers  as  the  following  well  represent  this  tend¬ 
ency. 


THE  ENGLISH  HYMN  TUNE 


287 


William  Boyce  (1710-1779)  — Sharon,  Chapel  Royal. 

Chas.  Burney  (1726-1814)  —Truro. 

John  Wall  Callcott  (1766-1821)  — Callcott. 

Henry  Carey  (1685-1743)  — America,  Carey’s. 

John  Darwall  (1731-1789)  — Darwall’s  148th. 

Felice  de  Giardini  (1716-1796)  — Italian  Hymn. 

William  Hursley  (1774-1858)  — Hursley. 

John  Wainwright  (1723-1768)  — Yorkshire. 

Samuel  Webbe  (1740-1816)  — Benevento,  Come,  Ye 

Disconsolate.1 

7.  The  Later  Modern  School 

This  conservative  school  in  the  next  generation  yielded 
still  more  to  the  prevailing  tendency  and  approached  the 
sedater  element  of  the  “  Florid  School,”  though  they 
rarely  transgressed  the  Cranmerian  rule  of  a  note  to  a 
syllable.  Individuals  in  the  school  differed  in  their 
severity  of  taste.  Gauntlett,  for  instance,  denounced 
Samuel  Seb.  Wesley’s  “  Aurelia  ”  as  cheap  and  mere¬ 
tricious,  because  its  harmonic  strength  did  not  reach  up 
to  his  standard.  In  general  efficiency,  however,  the  obnox¬ 
ious  tune  was  more  valuable  than  all  of  Gauntlett’s  tunes 
put  together. 

The  following  composers  were  the  more  notable  repre¬ 
sentatives  of  this  Conservative  Modern  School : 

William  Hutchins  Calcott  (1807-1882),  Intercession 
(new). 

Henry  John  Gauntlett  (1805-1876),  St.  George,  St. 
Albinus. 

John  Goss  (1800-1880),  Bevan,  Glad  Tidings,  Trans¬ 
figuration. 

William  Henry  Havergal  (1790-1870),  Evan. 

George  Alexander  Macfarren  (1813-1887),  Bride¬ 
groom. 

1  “  Come,  Ye  Disconsolate  ”  is  not  entirely  in  place  here.  It  was 
adapted  from  one  of  Webbe’s  many  glees. 


288  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Samuel  Sebastian  Wesley  (1810-1876),  Harewood, 
Aurelia,  Hora  Novissima. 

8.  The  “  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern  ”  School 

In  1858  Rev.  Sir  Henry  Williams  Baker,  Bart.,  took  the 
initial  steps  which  culminated  in  the  famous  hymnal, 
“  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern/’  which  set  a  new  stand¬ 
ard  in  the  editing  of  church  hymnals.  Incidentally,  by 
attracting  and  giving  opportunity  for  new  composers,  the 
book  was  the  occasion  of  an  advanced  school  of  hymn 
tune  writing.  It  was  still  syllabic,  but  in  general  its 
melodies  had  less  definiteness  of  design  than  the  preced¬ 
ing  school/  The  individuality  of  this  school  lies  in  its 
emphasis  upon  the  expressiveness  of  the  harmony  rather 
than  upon  its  melody.8  It  is  ultramodern  in  its  large  use 
of  discords  as  distinguished  from  the  concords  of  its 
predecessors.  This  adds  poignancy  to  its  effects  and 
aggressiveness  to  its  movement.  It  is  a  far  departure 
from  the  serenity  and  stateliness  of  the  elder  tunes.  In¬ 
deed,  it  is  a  recrudescence  of  the  exciting  discords  of  sav¬ 
age  music,  but  without  its  stress  of  the  rhythm.  It  is 
depressing  to  the  nervous  system  and  not  stimulating. 
“  Nicea  ”  is  perhaps  its  most  inspiring  tune,  but  that  does 
not  hurry  the  pulse  as  does  “  Old  Hundredth  ”  or  “  Duke 
Street  ”  or  “  Coronation/’ 

The  most  typical  composer  of  this  school  is  John  B. 
Dykes.  His  tunes  display  its  characteristics  most  con¬ 
sistently  and  unfailingly.  He  is  also  the  most  prolific 

3  “  Eventide,”  “  Almsgiving,”  “  Nicea,”  and  “  Lux  Benigna  ” 
are  exceptions. 

8  The  composers  of  these  tunes  were  or  are  connected  with 
cathedrals  or  with  other  large  musical  resources  as  organists  and 
otherwise,  and  are  High  Church  in  attitude.  Their  music,  there¬ 
fore,  is  essentially  organ  rather  than  vocal  in  its  character. 


THE  ENGLISH  HYMN  TUNE 


289 


writer  among  them.  Joseph  Barnby  is  usually  classed 
with  this  school,  but  is  more  tuneful  than  the  majority. 
Some  of  the  tunes  written  by  other  writers  in  this  style  do 
not  markedly  differ  from  those  of  the  preceding  genera¬ 
tion.  The  most  important  composers  and  their  most 
successful  tunes  are  as  follows : 

Henry  Williams  Baker  (1821-1877),  Stephanos. 

-  Joseph  Barnby  (1838-1896),  Laudes  Domini,  Twilight, 
Paradise,  March  to  Victory,  Crossing  the  Bar. 

John  Bacchus  Dykes  (1823-1875),  Nicsea,  Almsgiving, 
Vox  Dilecti,  St.  Agnes,  Hollingside,  Alford,  Vox  Angel¬ 
ica,  Lux  Benigna. 

George  Job  Elvey  (1816-1893),  Diademata,  St.  Georges 
Windsor. 

Edward  John  Hopkins  (1818-1901),  Benediction,  Chil¬ 
dren’s  Voices. 

Timothy  Richard  Matthews  (1826-1910),  Margaret. 

Wm.  Henry  Monk  (1823-1889),  Eventide. 

Albert  Lister  Peace  (1844-1912),  St.  Margaret. 

Henry  Smart  (1813-1879),  Regent  Square,  Lancashire, 
Pilgrims. 

John  Stainer  (1840-1901),  Magdalen. 

Charles  Steggall  (1826-1905),  St.  Edwards. 

Arthur  Seymour  Sullivan  (1842-1900),  St.  Gertrude, 
Lux  Mundi,  Proprior  Deo,  St.  Edmund,  Cardiff,  Home¬ 
land,  Angel  Voices. 

9.  Present  Tendencies 

This  latest  school  in  hymn  tune  writing  has  passed 
away.  What  few  tunes  are  being  written  in  Great  Britain 
are  imitations  of  the  foregoing,  with  added  emphasis  of 
their  value  as  organ  pieces  rather  than  as  tunes  to  be 
sung. 

There  is  an  increasing  movement  to  revive  the  old 


290  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Plain  Song  melodies  by  harmonizing  and  to  some  extent 
mensurating  them.  As  might  be  conjectured,  this  is  a 
High  Church  tendency,  based  on  a  sense  of  obligation  to 
the  traditional,  rather  than  on  any  inherent  tuneful  value 
in  the  old  formless  melodies.  Its  advocates  are  organized 
and  have  had  enough  influence  to  secure  considerable 
representation  for  the  Plain  Song  arrangements  in  the 
later  editions  of  “  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern.” 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  compensation  was  there  for  the  decadence  of  psalm¬ 
singing? 

2.  What  changes  took  place  in  the  tunes  in  becoming  hymn 
tunes? 

3.  Give  the  fundamental  difference  between  the  metrical 
psalm  and  the  hymn. 

4.  What  was  the  relation  of  the  Wesleys  to  the  new  hymn 
tunes? 

5.  What  were  the  characteristics  of  the  Florid  School? 

6.  What  was  the  origin  of  the  fugue  tunes  and  to  what  evils 
did  they  lead? 

7.  Give  some  of  the  useful  hymn  tunes  that  were  composed 
during  this  epoch. 

8.  What  were  the  relations  of  these  several  schools  of  hymn 
tunes? 

9.  What  changes  took  place  in  the  conservative  syllabic 
tunes  during  the  eighteenth  century? 

10.  Give  the  leading  composers  of  this  later  conservative 
school  and  their  surviving  tunes. 

11.  Who  were  the  leading  conservative  composers  of  the  suc¬ 
ceeding  generation?  Give  their  most  acceptable  tunes. 

12.  How  did  the  “  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern  ”  school  of 
hymn  tune  composers  arise? 

13.  What  lines  of  change  did  the  composers  follow? 

14.  Who  were  the  most  important  writers  of  this  school? 
Name  their  most  successful  tunes. 

15.  What  are  the  present  tendencies  in  recent  English  hymn 
tune  writing? 


XXII 


NEW  ENGLAND  PSALMODY 

Supplementary  Reading:  Ritter,  “Music  in  America,”  Scrib¬ 
ner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Grove,  “Dictionary  of  Music  and  Mu¬ 
sicians,”  Vol.  VI,  Article  “Tune  Books,”  Presser,  Philadelphia; 
Dickinson,  “  Music  in  the  Western  Church,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  New 
York;  Curwen,  “Studies  in  Worship  Music,”  Vol.  I,  Article 
“New  England  Psalmody,”  Curwen,  London;  E.  S.  Ninde,  “The 
American  Hymn,”  Abingdon  Press,  New  York. 

i.  Early  American  Music  Puritan 

(a)  Puritan  not  Pilgrim.  The  original  birthplace  of 
American  music  was  Boston,  not  Plymouth;  that  is,  it 
was  the  Puritan,  not  the  Pilgrim  who  gave  the  first 
impulse  to  the  publication  of  church  music.  The  Pil¬ 
grims  sang  psalms,  it  is  true,  for  Mr.  Winslow’s  account 
of  the  founding  of  the  colony  at  Plymouth  states  that 
“  We  refreshed  ourselves  with  singing  of  psalms,  making 
joyful  melody  in  our  hearts  as  well  as  with  the  voice, 
there  being  many  of  our  congregation  very  expert  in 
music  and  indeed  it  was  the  sweetest  music  that  mine 
ears  ever  heard.”  But  the  cares  and  privations  and 
severe  labours  of  their  pioneer  life  left  little  room  for  the 
culture  of  music  and  it  soon  fell  into  decay.  Moreover, 
Plymouth  had  little  intercourse  with  England  or  the  out¬ 
side  world.1  But  Puritan  Boston  was  in  constant  com- 

1  It  should  also  be  remembered  that  the  Pilgrims  were  sepa¬ 
ratists,  very  narrow  sectarians,  who  were  out  of  sympathy  with 
the  general  body  of  Puritans,  in  America  as  well  as  in  England. 
It  was  the  Puritans,  not  the  Pilgrims,  who  gave  character  to 
New  England  and  laid  the  foundations  of  its  intellectual  life  and 
culture. 


291 


292  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


munication  with  England  and  soon  became  the  gateway 
through  which  came  a  steadily  increasing  immigration 
from  England.  Among  these  newcomers  were  men  of 
affairs,  and  professional  men  with  education  and  culture, 
some  of  them  graduates  of  Cambridge  and  Oxford. 
There  was  an  intellectual  atmosphere  favourable  to  in¬ 
crease  of  culture  of  all  kinds,  and  more  means  with  which 
to  secure  it.  Music  shared  in  the  more  favourable  op¬ 
portunities  of  the  Puritan  community. 

( b )  Puritan  not  Cavalier.  An  even  more  striking  fact 
is  that  the  Cavaliers  of  Virginia  and  the  South  had  no 
share  in  the  original  musical  impulse  among  the  colonists. 
They  had  superior  wealth,  and  more  social  standing  and 
culture,  and  they  had  back  of  them  the  traditions  and 
resources  of  the  English  Established  Church.  They 
lacked,  however,  the  primary  urge  for  the  culture  of 
music,  the  religious  spirit.  It  may  be  added  that  the  very 
elaborateness  of  church  music  in  the  home  church  dis¬ 
couraged  the  colonists  with  their  lamentable  lack  of  mu¬ 
sical  resources  from  attempting  to  keep  up  the  standard. 
What  music  they  had  was  a  very  faint  echo  of  the  music 
of  the  Established  Church  in  England  which  again  was  in 
a  state  of  decadence,  as  far  as  the  country  at  large  was 
concerned.  It  is  true  that  English  singers  gave  operatic 
performances  in  southern  cities  long  before  any  appeared 
in  Boston,  but  this  interest  struck  no  root  in  the  soil. 

2.  Divided  Opinions  Regarding  Psalm  Singing 

With  the  independent,  individualistic  mental  attitude  of 
the  Puritans,  there  were  certain  to  be  eccentricities  of 
opinion  regarding  music.  Some  held  with  Zwingli,  that 
Christians  should  not  sing  at  all.  It  was  frivolous  and 
worldly.  The  only  Biblical  requirement  was  to  “  make 
melody  in  their  hearts.”  Others  contended  that  only  pro- 


NEW  ENGLAND  PSALMODY 


293 


fessed  Christians  had  a  right  to  sing,  suffering  the  gen¬ 
eral  congregation  to  join  in  only  an  “  amen.”  Others 
would  allow  only  men  to  sing.  Still  others,  with  the 
strange  perversity  that  finds  satisfaction  in  opposing  gen¬ 
erally  accepted  ideas  or  usages,  objected  to  the  singing  of 
the  psalms. 

The  Rev.  John  Cotton  entered  the  lists  in  1647  with  a 
tract,  “  Singing  of  Psalms  a  Gospel  Ordinance  ”  in  which 
with  great  ability  and  skill  he  replied  to  all  these  vagrant 
notions  in  an  unanswerable  way  and  greatly  cleared  the 
musical  atmosphere.  He  not  only  put  music  in  the  church 
service  in  its  proper  place,  but  paved  the  way  for  private 
musical  enjoyment  and  culture. 

3.  New  England  Psalters 

(a)  Ainsworth' s  Psalter.  The  Pilgrims  brought  over 
with  them  from  Leyden  Ainsworth’s  version  of  the 
Psalms  which  continued  in  use  for  seventy  years.  In 
this  psalter  the  melodies  occurred  over  the  psalms;  they 
were  printed  in  lozenge  or  diamond  shaped  notes,  with¬ 
out  bars.  It  was  Genevan  rather  than  English  in  char¬ 
acter.  This  psalter  was  unknown  to  later  immigrants  and 
had  no  extensive  use,  disappearing  from  among  the  people 
in  the  course  of  years.  Lining  out  the  hymns  was  in¬ 
troduced  among  the  Pilgrims  about  1680. 

( h )  The  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  Psalter.  The  other 
communities  of  New  England  used  the  Sternhold  and 
Hopkins  version  as  far  as  they  used  any.  Musical  cul¬ 
ture  was  at  a  very  low  ebb  and  readers  of  musical  nota¬ 
tion  were  very  few. 

(e)  The  Bay  Psalm  Book.  In  1640  appeared  the 
“  Bay  Psalm  Book.”  It  was  edited  by  a  committee  of 
ministers  at  the  head  of  which  were  Welde,  Mather,  and 
Eliot,  It  was  an  entirely  new  version  intended  to  be  more 


294 "  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


scriptural  than  that  of  Ainsworth.  The  preface  Con¬ 
sisted  of  a  discourse  establishing  that  psalm  singing  was 
both  lawful  and  necessary.  It  went  through  no  less  than 
seventy  editions  in  the  succeeding  century  and  a  half. 
It  contained  no  music  until  the  ninth  edition  in  1696 
which  contained  only  a  few  tunes  with  air  and  bass. 
These  were  taken  from  Playford’s  Psalter,  which  we  have 
seen  was  issued  in  1671.  Improved  by  Dunster  and 
Lyon,  it  was  reprinted  in  England  in  eighteen  editions 
and  in  twenty-two  in  Scotland, — America’s  first  contribu¬ 
tion  to  the  church  music  of  England,  but  by  no  means 
the  last. 

4.  The  Decadence  of  Congregational  Singing  and 

Efforts  at  Reform 

(a)  The  Low  State  of  Church  Music.  The  scattered 
population  with  no  opportunity  for  musical  instruction 
soon  lost  what  musical  skill  it  had  brought  over  from 
England.  Books  with  tunes  were  not  only  few  but  of 
various  kinds.  The  more  difficult  tunes  were  either  for¬ 
gotten  or  so  changed  by  the  ignorance,  forgetfulness  or 
irresponsible  vagaries  of  leaders  that  they  greatly  varied 
in  different  communities.  Presently  not  more  than  ten 
tunes  were  in  general  use  and  many  congregations  were 
confined  to  five,  “  York,”  “  Hackney,”  “  Windsor,”  “  St. 
Mary’s,”  and  “  Martyrs.”  If  contemporary  accounts 
may  be  accepted  at  face  value,  the  tone  quality  of  the 
congregational  song  left  much  to  be  desired.2 

2  Eliot,  the  great  Indian  apostle,  in  an  essay  on,  church  music 
describes  the  situation  as  follows :  “  Where  there  is  no  rule,  men’s 
fancies  (by  which  they  are  governed)  are  various;  some  affect  a 
quavering  flourish  on  one  note,  and  others  upon  another,  which 
(because  they  are  ignorant  of  true  music  and  melody)  they  ac¬ 
count  a  grace  to  the  tune ;  and  while  some  affect  a  quicker  mo¬ 
tion,  others  affect  a  slower  and  drawl  out  their  notes  beyond 


NEW  ENGLAND  PSALMODY 


295 


( b )  Efforts  at  Reformation.  The  musical  situation 
became  so  offensive  to  devout  ministers  that  a  strenuous 
effort  was  made  by  prominent  clergymen  like  Mather, 
Edwards,  Symmes,  Dwight  and  others  to  institute  a  re¬ 
form  by  organizing  singing  schools  in  their  various  com¬ 
munities.  They  wrote  tracts,  they  preached  sermons, 
they  sought  to  encourage  singing  teachers. 

But  they  found  vehement  opposition  in  the  congrega¬ 
tions  themselves.  Elders  and  deacons,  who  saw  their 
prominence  in  their  respective  congregations  endangered 
if  they  were  displaced  in  the  lining  of  hymns  and  in 
their  ostensible  leadership  in  the  song,  antagonized  the 
“  new  way  ”  of  singing  by  note.3 

Eliot  laments  that  “  instead  of  one  heart  and  one  voice 
in  the  praises  of  our  Glorious  Creator  and  most  bountiful 
Benefactor,  there  should  be  only  jangle,  discord  and 
slurring  and  reviling  one  another/’ 

After  about  1720  singing  societies  were  organized  in 
various  parts  of  New  England.  They  appealed  to  young 
people  in  both  a  musical  and  social  way.  Reforms  in 
the  music  were  instituted  in  leading  churches  in  Boston, 
Cambridge,  Roxbury,  Dorchester,  Charlestown,  Andover, 
and  other  towns  in  the  vicinity  of  Boston. 

(c)  Instruction  Books  in  Psalm  Singing.  The  great 

all  reason;  hence  in  congregations  ensue  jars  and  discords, 
which  make  singing  rather  resemble  howling,  and  this  drawing 
out  the  notes  to  such  a  length  is  the  occasion  of  their  tittering  up 
and  down,  as  if  the  tunes  were  all  composed  of  quavers  and  make 
’em  resemble  tunes  to  dance  to.” 

8 “This  way  of  singing  seems  to  be  derived  from  the  French, 
and  looks  like  popery;  and  it  seems  to  be  introductory  thereunto.” 

Another  objection  was  “  against  the  tone  used  in  singing  by 
rule;  and  the  particular  syllables,  mi,  fa,  sol,  la,  used  in  learning; 
some  called  it  a  negro  tone,  others  a  squealing  tone,  unbecoming 
the  worship  of  God.” 


296  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


need  was  for  books  of  instruction  in  singing  and  in  1714 
“  An  Introduction  to  the  Singing  of  Psalm  Tunes  ”  was 
issued  by  Rev.  J.  Tufts,  of  the  Second  Church,  New¬ 
bury.  He  was  the  first  follower  in  this  country  of  the 
“Jack  o’  Lantern”  of  simplified  notation.  Instead  of 
notes  he  placed  the  initials  of  fa,  sol,  la,  mi  as  follows: 


It  will  be  noticed  he  did  not  follow  the  Guidonian  system 
of  syllables.4  He  supplied  thirty-seven  tunes  taken  from 
Playford’s  “  Book  of  Psalms.”  All  but  one  were  in 
common  meter. 

Rev.  Thomas  Walter  of  Roxbury,  Mass.,  issued  another 
instruction  book  in  1621  entitled  “  The  Grounds  and 
Rules  of  Music  Explained.”  A  number  of  the  most 
prominent  ministers  in  New  England  signed  a  prefatory 
recommendation  of  the  book,  displaying  their  interest  in 
the  development  of  skill  in  reading  notes.  The  “  In¬ 
structions  ”  are  again  compiled  from  Playford.  The 
tunes  were  printed  with  bars  for  the  first  time  in  America, 
but  it  was  a  merely  mechanical  imitation  of  Playford’s 
barred  music.  This  book  was  very  successful  and  passed 
through  many  editions.  It  deserves  to  be  credited  with  a 
large  share  of  the  advancement  that  now  began  to  be 
made  in  New  England  Psalmody. 

In  this  class  of  books  the  music  soon  constituted  the 
large  part  of  them.  The  English  collections  of  W. 
Tansur  and  Aaron  Williams  were  freely  drawn  upon  by 
Daniel  Bailey  in  1755,  by  James  Lyon  in  1761,  by  Josiah 
Flagg  in  1764.  Not  only  psalm  tunes  but  anthems  and 

*  One,  two  and  three,  and  four,  five  and  six,  of  the  scale  were 
both  “  fa,  sol,  la,”  while  seven  was  “  mi.”  The  problem  was  to 
find  “  mi.” 


NEW  ENGLAND  PSALMODY 


297 


“  fuguing  choruses  ”  begin  to  appear.  This  was  due  to 
the  increase  in  choirs  and  their  ambition  to  sing  some¬ 
thing  more  interesting  and  attractive  than  plain  psalm 
tunes. 

( d )  The  Abrogation  of  Lining  Out  the  Hymns.  Psalm 
books  were  increasing  in  number  in  the  churches,  and 
the  need  of  lining  out  the  hymns  passed  away.  There 
rose  objections  to  the  custom  from  leading  ministers  and 
from  the  singers  whose  work  it  hindered.  Absurd  and 
even  laughable  incidents  occurred.  When  the  clerk  read 
out, 

“  The  Lord  will  come,  and  he  will  not,” 
or 

“  Keep  silent,  but  speak  out,” 

the  absurdity  did  not  conduce  to  devoutness.  But  as 
often  happens  in  church  work  a  temporary  makeshift  by 
overlong  use  had  become  sacred  to  many  devout  minds, 
and  there  was  vehement  objection  to  the  abrogation  of 
this  custom.  There  were  actual  clashes  between  the 
clerk  who  did  the  lining  out  of  the  hymns  and  the  choirs 
who  sang  straight  on  through  the  hymn,  ignoring  them.5 

5.  The  Rise  of  American  Psalm  Tune  Composers 

There  had  been  a  few  new  psalm  tunes  in  the  books 
of  Bailey  and  Lyon.  The  tune  “  Mear  ”  is  possibly  of 
even  earlier  American  origin.  While  hitherto  the 
colonies  had  gladly  turned  to  the  mother  country  for  its 
music  of  all  kinds,  the  rising  spirit  of  independence  and 
the  political  resentment  against  the  growing  exactions  of 

5  The  choirs  did  not  always  win  the  battle !  In  one  Massa¬ 
chusetts  town  in  which  the  choir  ran  away  with  the  tune,  the 
deacon  rose  after  they  were  through,  calmly  set  his  spectacles  on 
his  nose  and  said,  “  Now  let  the  people  of  God  sing”  and  he  lined 
out  another  psalm. 


298  THE  HISTORY  OP  CHURCH  MUSIC 


the  English  government  found  their  manifestation  in 
musical  lines  as  well. 

(a)  William  Billings.  The  first  American  composer8 
was  William  Billings,  born  1746  at  Boston  and  died  there 
in  1800.  He  was  not  a  professional  musician,  but  a 
tanner.  He  had  only  such  training  as  the  singing  schools 
and  the  current  books  of  instruction  in  singing  psalm 
tunes  afforded.  Physically  he  could  not  have  been  very 
prepossessing;  he  was  blind  in  one  eye,  one  arm  was 
withered,  one  leg  was  shorter  than  the  other  and  he  took 
snuff  incessantly!  Yet  he  was  countenanced  by  such 
men  as  Governor  Samuel  Adams  and  Dr.  Pierce  of 
Brookline,  tie  had  a  stupendous  voice  that  submerged 
all  others. 

But  above  all  he  was  an  ambitious  fiery  spirit  which 
rose  above  his  handicaps.  He  was  not  satisfied  to  write 
plain  psalm  and  hymn  tunes  but  essayed  anthems  in 
fugue  and  canon.  In  1770  he  issued  his  epoch-making 
book  “  The  New  England  Psalm  Singer/’  The  motto  on 
the  title  page  was  appropriate  enough  from  several  con¬ 
siderations  (age,  twenty-four  years,  and  lack  of  train¬ 
ing)  :  “  Out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings  hast 
thou  perfected  praise.”  Conscious  of  his  shortcomings, 
his  preface  was  a  reasoned  defiance  of  the  established 
rules  of  harmony  and  counterpoint. 

But  age  brought  discretion  and  his  next  book,  issued  in 
1778,  “The  Singing  Master’s  Assistant,”  showed  much 
more  deference  to  accepted  rules  of  composition. 
Criticism  and  experience  had  prompted  study  of  the 
formerly  resented  rules.  But  even  at  his  best  Billings 

“That  Judge  Hopkinson  and  James  Eyon  preceded  Billings  by 
several  years  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  their  compositions  were 
slight  and  had  no  influence.  They  can  safely  be  considered  as 
negligible,  except  to  antiquarians. 


NEW  ENGLAND  PSALMODY 


299 


was  a  poor  harmonist  and  an  almost  impossible  contra¬ 
puntist.7 

The  list  of  his  other  books  is  as  follows : 

“  Music  in  Miniature/’  1779.  A  collection  of  psalm 
tunes  of  various  meters. 

“  The  Psalm  Singer’s  Amusement,”  1781.  A  collection 
of  fuguing  pieces  and  anthems. 

“  The  Suffolk  Harmony,”  1786.  A  collection  of  tunes, 
fugues,  and  anthems. 

“  The  Continental  Harmony,”  in  1794.  A  collection  of 
anthems,  fugues,  and  choruses,  all  of  them  new. 

Whatever  his  shortcomings,  and  his  handicaps,  the 
stuff  was  in  him!  His  tunes  were  his  own;  they  fitted 
the  feeling  of  the  words ;  they  were  singable — all  virtues 
that  cannot  be  too  highly  commended.  There  was  a 
spontaneity  and  vigour  in  him,  an  individuality  of  style 
that  was  typically  American.  His  “  Easter  Anthem  ” 
is  still  found  on  octavo  lists  and  is  sung  with  enthusiasm. 

His  books  had  all  the  larger  opportunity  that  the  New 
England  people  turned  against  all  things  English  when 
the  war  of  the  Revolution  came  on.  He  threw  himself 
into  the  war  with  all  his  energy.  He  could  not  fight,  but 
he  could  sing  and  he  could  write  patriotic  songs,  which 
he  proceeded  to  do.  He  paraphrased  the  psalms  and 
gave  them  a  political  and  patriotic  guise.  Of  course  he 
also  wrote  tunes  for  them.  His  music  was  popular  in 
camp  and  choir  and  home.  His  tune  “  Chester  ”  was 

7  How  fond  he  was  of  fugues  may  be  gathered  from  his  rhap¬ 
sody  :  “  It  has  more  than  twenty  times  the  power  of  the  old  slow 
tunes ;  each  part  straining  for  mastery  and  victory,  the  audience 
entertained  and  delighted,  their  minds  surpassingly  agitated  and 
extremely  fluctuated,  sometimes  declaring  for  one  part  and  some¬ 
times  for  another.  Now  the  solemn  bass  demands  their  attention 
— next  the  manly  tenor — now  the  lofty  counter, — now,  the  volatile 
treble.  Now  here,  now  there,  now  here  again.  O  ecstatic!  Rush 
on,  ye  sons  of  harmony.” 


300  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


sung  in  bleak  New  England  and  amid  the  cane-brakes 
of  South  Carolina.8 

8  CHESTER 


William  Billings. 


has  the  more  vigorous  tune.  That  may  explain  its  remarkable 
popularity  in  the  Continental  army. 


NEW  ENGLAND  PSALMODY 


301 


( b )  Other  American  Tune  Composers.  Billings’  suc¬ 
cess  could  not  but  lead  others  to  emulate  him  as  com¬ 
posers.  Andrew  Law  (1748-1821)  issued  quite  a  series 
of  books,  beginning  with  “  Select  Number  of  Plain 
Tunes”  (1767)  and  ending  with  “Art  of  Playing  the 
Organ”  (1809).  He  was  the  antithesis  of  Billings, 
thorough,  pedantic,  but  tiresome.  One  only  of  his  tunes, 
“  Archdale,”  had  any  wide  use.  None  the  less,  his  books 
were  useful  and  tended  to  lift  the  standard  of  musical 
taste  and  accuracy.  He  has  the  reputation  of  having 
transferred  the  tune  to  the  soprano,  but  this  had  been 
done  earlier  by  Tufts,  Walter,  and  Bailey,  copying  from 
Playford.  He  was  the  father  of  shaped  notes. 

Less  notable  successors  were  John  Stickney  (1744- 
1827),  Daniel  Read  (1757-1836),  composer  of  “  Lisbon” 
and  “Windham,”  Timothy  Swan  (1758-1842),  composer 
of  “  China,”  and  others. 

Oliver  Holden  (1765-1834?)  deserves  notice  as  the 
composer  of  America’s  most  notable  hymn  tune,  “  Coro¬ 
nation.”  He  issued  “  The  American  Harmony  ”  in  1792 
and  “The  Union  Harmony”  in  1793.  His  fugues  were 
rather  “  home-made,” — crude  and  incorrect. 

Samuel  Holyoke  (1771-1816)  is  notable  in  that  he  was 
the  first  of  his  generation  to  omit  fugues  in  his  “  Har- 
monia  Americana,”  in  1791,  issued  when  he  was  but 
twenty  years  of  age.  One  can  feel  the  heat  of  the  young 
reformer’s  zeal  when  he  says  in  his  preface,  “  Perhaps 
some  may  be  disappointed  that  fuguing  pieces  are  in 
general  omitted.  But  the  principal  reason  why  few  were 
inserted  was  the  trifling  effect  produced  by  that  sort  of 
music;  for  the  parts  falling  in,  one  after  another,  each 
conveying  a  different  idea,  confound  the  sense,  and 
render  the  performance  a  mere  jargon  of  words.”  But 
as  often  happens,  the  work  of  the  reformer  was  not 


302  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


superior  to  those  whose  compositions  he  condemned. 
He  produced  nothing  worthy  of  preservation. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  was  Boston,  rather  than  Plymouth  or  Jamestown, 
the  birthplace  of  American  music? 

2.  What  divided  opinions  were  there  among  the  early  Puritans 
regarding  psalm  singing? 

3.  What  three  psalters  were  in  use  among  the  early  Puritans? 

4.  Why  did  a  decadence  set  in  with  reference  to  psalm  sing¬ 
ing? 

5.  What  tunes  were  chiefly  used  during  this  dark  age  of  New 
England  Psalmody? 

6.  What  lines  of  reformation  were  pursued? 

7.  Who  were  leaders  in  this  movement? 

8.  What  instruction  books  in  psalm  singing  were  issued? 

9.  From  what  common  source  were  their  tunes  taken? 

10.  What  collections  of  psalm  tunes  were  issued  and  from 
what  sources  taken? 

11.  What  unfortunate  method  had  been  used  to  provide  for 
the  lack  of  books? 

12.  What  influences  favoured  the  writing  of  American  psalm 
tunes? 

13.  Give  the  characteristics  of  the  first  American  psalm  tune 
composer. 

14.  Give  the  name  of  the  first  American  psalm  tune  book  and 
its  leading  features. 

15.  What  were  Billings’  patriotic  activities? 

16.  Name  the  editors  of  other  collections  of  American  psalm 
tunes. 

17.  Why  is  the  name  of  Oliver  Holden  noteworthy? 

18.  Who  made  the  first  effort  to  do  away  with  fuguing  tunes? 


XXIII 


THE  AMERICAN  HYMN  TUNE 

Supplementary  Reading:  Ritter,  “  Music  in  America,”  Scribner’s 
Sons,  New  York;  Grove,  “Dictionary  of  Music  and  Musicians,” 
Vol.  VI,  Presser,  Philadelphia;  Dickinson,  “Music  in  the 
Western  Church,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Curwen,  “Studies 
in  Worship  Music,”  Curwen,  London ;  Benson,  “  The  English 
Hymn,”  Hodder  and  Stoughton,  New  York, 


i.  Transition  from  Psalm  to  Hymn  Tunes 

The  transition  from  the  use  of  metrical  versions  of 
the  Psalms  to  hymns  was  long  and  sometimes  fiercely 
contended,  especially  in  Pennsylvania  and  the  West 
where  the  Scottish  element  predominated.  Watts’  ver¬ 
sion  of  the  Psalms  almost  everywhere  prepared  the  way 
for  his  hymns.  His  “  The  Psalms  Imitated  ”  was  re¬ 
printed  by  Benjamin  Franklin  in  Philadelphia  in  1729, 
but  it  remained  upon  the  publisher’s  shelves  unsold. 
Ten  years  later  his  Hymns  were  printed  in  Boston. 

“  The  Great  Awakening,”  with  its  urgent  demand  for 
more  spontaneous  lyrical  expression  of  the  new  religious 
experience,  favoured  the  use  of  the  new  hymns,  and  they 
gradually  crept  in  as  appendixes  to  collections  of  the 
general  metrical  versions  of  the  Psalms.  Many  of  the 
tunes  of  the  Billings  epoch  were  already  set  to  these 
hymns  of  Watts  and  to  a  slight  extent  of  the  Wesleys. 
Within  a  few  decades  the  hymn  had  displaced  the  met¬ 
rical  version  in  most  New  England  congregations  and 
hence  we  may  now  treat  of  the  hymn  tune. 

3°3 


304  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


2.  The  Reaction  Against  the  Popular  Psalmody 

The  extravagance  and  the  crudity  of  the  Billings 
school  presently  produced  a  violent  reaction,  particularly 
among  persons  of  culture  or  of  serious  devoutness.  Prof. 
John  Hubbard  of  Dartmouth  College  in  1807  declared 
that  “  Almost  every  pedant,  after  learning  the  eight  notes, 
has  commenced  author.  With  a  genius  sterile  as  the 
desert  of  Arabia,  he  has  attempted  to  rival  the  great 
masters  of  music.” 

Learned  ministers  inveighed  against  the  prevalent  style 
of  psalmody.  Many  of  them  considered  omitting  music 
entirely  from  their  services,  claiming  that  the  effects  of 
their  most  impressive  sermons  were  obliterated  by  the 
succeeding  fuguing  tunes.  Such  a  prejudice  arose 
against  the  current  American  music  that  in  1812  the 
compilers  of  “  The  Bridgewater  Collection  ”  excluded  it 
entirely,  depending  on  English  reprints  for  its  material. 

The  increasing  number  of  English  immigrants  with 
musical  training  and  culture,  and  even  of  well-trained 
organists  and  other  musicians,  only  increased  the  general 
reaction.  The  importation  of  English  anthems  and 
oratorio  numbers  gave  a  tangible  standard  which  made 
the  crudity,  commonplaceness,  and  bad  taste  of  the 
current  church  music  more  evident. 

But  these  expressions  of  superior  culture  and  taste 
were  confined  to  the  larger  centers  of  population  and 
scholarship,  where  musical  societies  were  introducing  and 
studying  the  best  choral  music  of  England  and  the  Con¬ 
tinent.  The  leading  organization  of  this  kind  was  “  The 
Handel  and  Haydn  Society  ”  of  Boston  which  was  to 
exercise  a  notable  influence  in  behalf  of  better  church 
music. 

Still  the  tide  of  singing  school  and  psalm  tune  books 


THE  AMERICAN  HYMN  TUNE 


305 


rose  even  higher  as  one  may  see  from  the  long  catalogue 
of  titles  in  Vol.  VI  of  “  Grove’s  Dictionary/’  To  get  a 
vivid  realization  of  the  situation  one  must  remember  the 
small  population  to  which  they  appealed  for  support. 

3.  The  Practical  Value  of  this  Undesirable 

Music 

It  would  be  a  very  one  sided  and  inadequate  view  of 
this  crude  music  to  condemn  it  utterly.  It  contained 
some  strong  spontaneous  melodies  despite  their  slipshod 
and  inadequate  harmonization.  In  essential  musical 
value,  aside  from  the  technical  contrapuntal  and  har¬ 
monic  accuracy,  it  was  not  inferior  to  most  tunes  written 
in  England.  It  kept  the  impulse  to  write  new  tunes  alive 
and  so  prepared  the  way  for  better  work  later. 

What  was  most  important  of  all,  perhaps,  was  the 
training  of  the  singers  secured  in  the  community  singing 
schools  by  means  of  the  treatises  on  the  elements  of  music 
prefixed  or  appended  to  the  tune  books.  When  the  bet¬ 
ter  music  arrived  it  found  the  singers  of  even  obscure 
country  communities  ready  to  sing  it,  for  they  were 
organized  into  choirs  and  trained  to  sing  together. 
Moreover,  the  very  desire  for  something  new  to  sing, 
that  called  forth  the  overabundant  tune  books,  opened 
the  door  wide  for  the  better  music  that  succeeded. 

4.  The  Organization  of  Musical  Conventions 

The  valuable  pedagogical  side  of  church  music  found 
its  opportunity  when  the  choir  singers  were  gathered 
together  annually  in  great  musical  conventions.  The 
movement  originated  in  1829  in  New  Hampshire. 
Lowell  Mason  and  his  associates  in  the  Boston  Academy 
of  Music  saw  the  advantages  of  the  plan  and  from  1834 
on  the  musical  convention  was  the  outstanding  method 


306  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


of  creating  interest  in  church  music  from  Maine  to  Balti¬ 
more  and  from  Boston  to  Cincinnati. 

For  nearly  forty  years  these  conventions  kept  up  the 
interest  in  church  music  and  choral  singing.  The 
leaders  were  Lowell  Mason,  George  J.  Webbe,  L.  O. 
Emerson,  B.  F.  Baker,  George  F.  Root,  Isaac  B.  Wood¬ 
bury,  C.  C.  Case,  James  H.  McGranahan,  and  P.  P. 
Bliss.  H.  R.  Palmer  was  perhaps  the  last  of  this  genera¬ 
tion  of  convention  leaders. 

In  these  conventions  were  lectures  on  general  musical 
topics,  classes  in  voice  training,  harmony  classes,  private 
lessons  in  solo  singing,  musical  composition,  piano  and 
the  like.  The  chief  feature  always  was  the  elucidation 
of  nice  points  of  notation  and  the  chorus  training  cul¬ 
minating  in  the  singing  of  some  great  oratorio  or  operatic 
chorus,  or  even  of  the  whole  oratorio,  such  as  “  The 
Creation,”  “  Messiah  ”  or  “  St.  Paul.” 

The  cultural  value  of  such  a  gathering  of  choir  leaders 
and  singers  from  remote  communities  as  well  as  musical 
centers  will  be  realized  at  a  glance.  The  pity  is  that  in¬ 
stead  of  developing  still  further,  and  preparing  the  way 
for  a  genuine  American  choral  music,  it  went  into  decay 
because  of  the  tide  of  foreign  leaders  out  of  sympathy 
with  American  music  and  the  tyranny  of  the  piano  which 
submerged  the  purely  American  tendencies. 

5.  The  Pioneer  Work  of  Thomas  Hastings 

One  of  the  most  thoughtful  and  sensible  teachers  and 
editors  of  this  period  of  musical  preparation  was  Thomas 
Hastings  (1787-1872),  a  Connecticut  Yankee,  whose 
chief  work  was  done  in  northern  New  York.  Being  a 
very  religious  man,  his  fundamental  proposition  was  that 
in  church  music  the  religious  element  must  predominate. 
Hence  not  only  in  teaching  choirs  and  choir  conventions, 


THE  AMERICAN  HYMN  TUNE 


307 


but  in  his  writing  of  hymn  tunes,  he  sought  religious 
effects  rather  than  technical  or  even  artistic  excellence. 
His  book  on  “  Musical  Taste,”  issued  first  in  1822,  and 
again  in  1853,  is  bitterly  opposed  by  the  fanatics  of 
musical  art,  but  contained  the  essence  of  the  matter, 
none  the  less. 

Mr.  Hastings’  influence  in  displacing  the  mere  singing 
school  atmosphere  in  the  work  of  choirs  with  the  religious 
and  truly  devotional  was  both  needed  and  salutary.  He 
issued  a  great  number  of  books  both  of  instruction  and 
of  tunes  which  had  a  wide  use,  also  some  juvenile  hymn 
books. 

His  surviving  tunes  are  first  “  Toplady,”  then  “  Orton- 
ville,”  with  “  Retreat,”  and  “  Zion,”  following  close 
after. 

He  was  even  more  successful  as  a  hymn  writer.  Of 
his  six  hundred  hymns,  our  hymnals  still  offer  his  “  He 
that  goeth  forth  with  weeping,”  “  How  calm  and  beauti¬ 
ful  the  morn,”  “  Hail  to  the  brightness  of  Zion’s  glad 
morning,”  last  verse  of  “  Come,  ye  disconsolate,” 
“  Gently,  Lord,  oh,  gently  lead  us,”  and  “  Jesus,  merciful 
and  mild.”  The  work  of  Hastings  was  largely  done 
in  connection  with  Presbyterian  congregations,  while 
Lowell  Mason  more  particularly  influenced  the  Congre- 
gationalists.  It  may  be  said  that  Hastings  furnished  the 
devotional  spirit,  while  Mason  supplied  the  organizing 
force  to  the  movement  of  reform. 

6.  The  Reform  Under  Lowell  Mason 

A  greater  man  than  Thomas  Hastings  was  Lowell 
Mason  (1792-1872),  born  at  Mansfield,  Mass.  Intended 
for  a  mercantile  career,  his  musical  impulses  were  too 
strong.  A  resident  of  Savannah,  Georgia,  he  compiled 
a  book  of  church  music  for  his  church  choir,  based  on 


308  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


the  “  Sacred  Melodies  ”  of  William  Gardiner  of  England, 
with  hymn  tunes  and  anthems  of  his  own,  which  “  The 
Handel  and  Haydn  Society  ”  published  in  1822.  The 
success  of  this  venture  led  to  Mason’s  devoting  himself 
wholly  to  music. 

It  was  as  a  teacher  rather  than  as  a  composer  of  music 
that  Mason  first  gained  prominence.  He  was  the  presi¬ 
dent  and  ex  officio  director  of  “  The  Handel  and  Haydn 
Society  ”  for  some  years.  He  was  made  the  head  of 
“  The  Boston  Academy  of  Music.”  In  1837  he  was 
what  would  now  be  called  “  musical  supervisor  ”  of  the 
city  of  Boston  for  a  year,  serving  without  salary  in  order 
to  prove  the  value  of  musical  instruction  in  the  public 
schools.  He  was,  therefore,  the  pioneer  in  public  school 
music. 

He  lectured  on  church  music  in  the  churches,  not  only 
of  Boston,  but  of  all  New  England  and  even  in  the  West, 
advocating  a  reform  in  the  church  music,  urging  sim¬ 
plicity  and  religious  genuineness  in  the  service  of  song. 
He  early  saw  the  great  opportunity  afforded  by  the  mu¬ 
sical  convention  and  led  in  its  development.  He  realized 
that  musical  teachers  needed  to  be  taught  how  to  teach. 

But  it  was  as  a  compiler  of  books  for  singing  schools 
and  choirs  that  he  did  his  most  memorable  work.  A 
strong  advocate  of  congregational  singing,  his  hymn  tunes 
had  the  virtues  of  singability,  smoothness  and  simplicity. 
While  not  elaborate  in  harmony,  they  still  had  strength 
and  variety,  and — what  preceding  American  hymn  tune 
harmonizers  lacked — accuracy. 

But  Mason  had  a  talent  for  seeing  hymn  tune  possibil¬ 
ities  in  varied  kinds  of  music.  The  need  of  filling  his 
large  books  with  varied  music  stimulated  that  talent  with 
happy  results  in  many  cases.  He  made  the  folk-songs 
of  Germany,  the  glees  of  England,  the  arias  and  choruses 


THE  AMERICAN  HYMN  TUNE 


309 


of  classic  composers,  all  pay  tribute  to  his  department  of 
hymn  tunes. 

The  result  was  a  variety  of  style  in  his  tunes  that  has 
been  criticized  as  displaying  a  lack  of  unity.  There  is 
the  same  difference  in  his  own  tunes.  Compare  “  Ux¬ 
bridge  ”  with  “  Bethany .”  But  this  is  not  a  fault;  it  is 
a  distinct  merit.  Why  should  all  tunes  be  cast  in  a  single 
mould  ?  The  criticism  is  a  bit  of  academical  narrowness. 

Mason  had  his  enemies,  as  might  be  expected  of  a  re¬ 
former.  The  conservatives  still  preferred  the  fugues 
and  resented  the  simplicity  of  the  new  tunes.  But  his 
most  bitter  enemies  were  the  impracticable  musical  ideal¬ 
ists  and  devotees  of  foreign  artistic  music,  who  fulmi¬ 
nated  against  Mason  and  his  coadjutors  as  cheap  and 
meretricious  and  commercial  in  spirit  at  the  very  time 
when  they  were  spreading  the  gospel  of  good  choral  music 
throughout  the  land. 

Mason  was  a  great  man  in  his  personality,  in  his  ideals 
and  forward  looking  aggressiveness,  rather  than  as  a 
musical  composer.  He  wrote  good,  singable,  admirable 
hymn  tunes,  the  miniatures  of  church  music ;  but  he  had 
no  talent  for  larger  work.  His  anthems  are  weak  and 
uninteresting  and  none  of  them  have  survived. 

His  younger  contemporary,  L.  O.  Emerson,  was  not 
so  popular  a  tune  artificer,  but  he  commanded  the  larger 
forms  with  vastly  more  force  and  freshness,  writing 
anthems  that  are  still  useful  and  adapted  to  present 
volunteer  choirs — “  Guide  Me,  O  Thou  Great  Jehovah,” 
for  instance — and  adapting  oratorio  and  operatic  choruses 
to  the  needs  of  popular  choruses  in  a  masterly  way. 

Mason  did  not  write  tunes  to  specific  hymns,  but  wrote 
a  tune  and  then  found  a  hymn  that  suited  it.  Super¬ 
ficially  considered  that  would  seem  like  inverting  the 
natural  order;  but  it  had  its  advantages.  If  the  tune  had 


310  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


been  composed  to  a  specific  hymn,  the  temptation  would 
have  been  irresistible  to  give  expression  to  its  smaller 
phrases  and  it  would  have  been  unfitted  for  any  other 
hymn.  This  would  do  for  a  few  tunes  like  “  Nearer,  My 
God,  to  Thee  ”  or  “  My  Faith  Looks  up  to  Thee/’  but 
the  mass  of  hymn  tunes  must  be  self-contained  and  objec¬ 
tive  in  order  to  carry  hymns  of  varied  emotions. 

The  work  of  Lowell  Mason  was  not  confined  to 
America.  His  tunes  were  widely  reprinted  in  Great 
Britain  and  marked  a  new  epoch  in  church  music  there, 
more  particularly  among  the  Nonconformist  churches. 
Indeed,  the  later  Established  Church  music  owes  to  him 
a  fresh  impulse  that  developed  into  the  Modem  School 
of  hymn  tunes.  No  less  than  thirty-four  of  his  com¬ 
positions  appear  in  the  current  Scottish  hymnals,  many 
of  them  in  all  the  collections. 

7.  The  Associates  of  Lowell  Mason 

The  influence  of  Mason  did  not  end  with  his  own  com¬ 
positions.  As  a  masterful  personality,  he  was  bound  to 
gather  about  him  other  men  whose  ideals  he  helped  to 
shape.  The  more  prominent  of  these  were  George  J. 
Webb  (composer  of  the  tune,  “Webb”),  George  F. 
Root  (Varina),  Heinrich  C.  Zeuner  (Missionary  Chant), 
L.  O.  Emerson  (Sessions),  Wm.  B.  Bradbury  (“Wood- 
worth,”  “He  Leadeth  Me,”  etc.),  and  many  others  like 
B.  F.  Baker,  L.  H.  Southard  and  W.  O.  Perkins  whose 
work  does  not  continue  in  use.  There  were  others  like 
Isaac  B.  Woodbury  (Dornance,  Siloam,  Nearer  Home), 
who,  while  not  immediately  associated  with  Mason, 
shared  in  the  general  movement  and  its  ideals. 

8.  The  Close  of  the  American  Hymn  Tune  Epoch 

With  Bradbury  this  American  hymn  tune  epoch  may  be 


THE  AMEKICAN  HYMN  TUNE 


311 


said  to  have  closed.  The  rise  of  the  Sunday-school  and 
the  Gospel  Song  attracted  the  writers  of  popular  church 
music  and  the  practical  disappearance  of  the  community 
singing  school  ended  the  vogue  of  the  old  oblong  tune 
and  anthem  books.  In  so  far  as  they  continued,  they 
were  secularized,  containing  popular  songs  and  glees. 

The  extraordinary  popularity  of  “  Hymns  Ancient  and 
Modern  ”  in  Great  Britain  led  to  its  reprint  in  America, 
and  the  new  school  of  hymn  tunes  represented  by  Dykes 
and  Barnby  appealed  strongly  to  the  more  cultured 
musicians  and  hymnal  editors.  The  popular  tunes  of 
Mason  and  Bradbury  were  copyrighted  and  their  pub¬ 
lishers  asked  such  high  prices  for  permission  to  use  them 
that  it  was  a  matter  of  thrift  to  use  instead  the  English 
tunes  that  were  free.  The  artistic  and  commercial  im¬ 
pulses  cooperating  against  the  use  of  the  American  hymn 
tunes,  for  some  years  they  took  a  minor  place  in  osten¬ 
sibly  high  class  hymnals.  But  they  are  coming  into  their 
own  again;  in  the  more  recent  hymnals  their  use  is  in¬ 
creasing. 

Unfortunately  these  English  hymn  tunes  have  had  no 
reproductive  vitality  in  America.  A  few  imitations  have 
occasionally  appeared  in  our  hymnals,  but  with  the  excep¬ 
tion  of  “  Materna  ”  by  Samuel  A.  Ward  and  “  All  Saints, 
New  ”  by  Henry  S.  Cutler,  they  have  died  still-born.  A 
few  tunes  have  been  taken  over  from  the  Sunday-school 
and  Gospel  Song  movement  such  as  “  Pilot  ”  by  J.  E. 
Gould  (1822-1875),  “Even  Me  ”  by  Wm.  B.  Bradbury, 
“God  be  with  You  ”  by  Tomer  (1833-1896)  and  others. 
It  may  be  that  presently  this  folk-song  music  will  again 
initiate  a  new  school  of  hymn  tunes  fitting  the  needs  of 
coming  generations,  of  which  Sherwin’s  “  Chautauqua  ” 
and  “  Bread  of  Life  ”  are  the  precursors. 


312  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


9.  The  Characteristics  of  the  American  Tune 

(a)  The  American  Time  is  Democratic.  Like  its 
Nonconformist  English  prototype,  the  American  tune  is 
not  ecclesiastical  in  style,  nor  born  in  an  organ  loft  under 
the  fingers  of  an  organist.  It  is  a  people’s  tune.  Its 
composers  were  not  academic  professionals  (sometimes 
so  much  the  worse),  but  representatives  of  the  native 
musical  impulses  of  the  people.  In  other  words,  these 
tunes  are  folk-songs  with  all  their  merits  and  demerits. 

( b )  They  are  Varied  in  Style.  While  the  ecclesiastical 
tunes  are  cast  in  one  mould,  syllabic,  common  time, 
progressions  of  radical  chords,  the  American  tune  has 
variety  in  rhythm,  time  and  harmony.  We  find  3/2,  3/4, 
6/8  tunes  with  the  measures  broken  into  notes  of  different 
lengths.  Some  tunes  are  more  or  less  syllabic;  others 
have  slurred  notes  and  but  slightly  varying  harmonies. 

( c )  Expressive  of  All  Religious  Emotions.  Instead  of 
expressing  exclusively  worshipful  reverence  and  awe,  the 
American  tune  voices  the  whole  gamut  of  feelings  and 
sentiments  associated  with  religion.  It  is  stately,  it  is 
tender,  it  is  inspiring.  It  is  adapted  to  many  practical 
needs  of  the  Church  in  its  varied  activities  outside  of  the 
regular  service  of  worship. 

( d )  The  Practicability  of  the  American  Tune.  Born 
of  actual  vocal  exercise,  passed  through  the  fire  of  actual 
use  under  conditions  which  eliminated  thousands  of  in¬ 
efficient,  unattractive  and  impracticable  tunes,  what  sur¬ 
vives  is  eminently  practicable  under  the  varying  conditions 
of  church  life,  not  only  in  America  but  elsewhere.  The 
vernacular  hymnals  issued  by  missionaries  all  over  the 
world  are  filled  with  these  tunes. 

(e)  The  American  Tune  is  Tuneful.  The  tunefulness 
of  the  American  music  is  one  of  its  most  striking  char¬ 
acteristics.  These  tunes  have  individuality;  they  are 


THE  AMERICAN  HYMN  TUNE 


313 


rememberable.  They  are  pleasing  and  attractive  in  their 
marked  design  and  remarkably  grateful  in  the  natural 
sequence  of  nervous  impression.  The  spontaneity  and 
grip  upon  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the  people  they  mani¬ 
fest  argue  a  vitality  that  will  cause  them  to  live  through 
coming  generations. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Describe  the  transition  from  metrical  psalms  to  hymns. 

2.  How  did  the  reaction  to  the  Billings  school  of  tunes  mani¬ 
fest  itself?  How  was  it  strengthened? 

■% 

3.  What  was  the  practical  value  of  Billings’  style  of  music? 

4.  Besides  furnishing  new  material,  what  was  its  chief  con¬ 
tribution? 

5.  Describe  the  development  of  Musical  Conventions  and 
name  the  chief  leaders  in  the  movement. 

6.  What  was  the  chief  cause  of  their  decadence? 

7.  What  was  the  chief  work  of  Thomas  Hastings? 

8.  Give  the  names  of  his  chief  hymn  tunes  and  designate  his 
surviving  hymns. 

9.  How  was  Lowell  Mason  led  into  a  musical  career? 

10.  In  what  lines  was  he  active? 

11.  What  were  his  strength  and  limitations? 

12.  What  was  Mason’s  contribution  to  church  music  in  Great 
Britain  and  elsewhere? 

13.  Who  were  the  chief  associates  and  followers  of  Mason? 

14.  Why  did  the  hymn-tune  writing  epoch  close  with  Brad¬ 
bury? 

15.  Why  did  English  hymn  tunes  displace  the  American  in 
our  leading  hymnals? 

16.  What  were  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  American  hymn 
tune? 


XXIV 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  It  will  be  wise  to  have  a  few  of  the 
more  characteristic  “  spirituals  ”  sung  by  the  class  in  a  somewhat 
stentorian  and  spirited  way.  “  I  Can’t  Stay  Any  Longer  ”  and 
“  Save  Almighty  Lord  ”  will  be  found  quite  typical  specimens.  A 
public  concert  before  the  seminary  consisting  of  the  “  spirituals  ” 
furnished  herewith  will  create  interest. 

Supplementary  Reading:  A.  S.  Jenks,  “Devotional  Melodies,” 
Philadelphia,  1859.  Musical  arrangements  made  by  William  J. 
Kirkpatrick.  Joseph  Hillman,  “  The  Revivalist,”  Troy,  New  York, 
1868.  Musical  arrangements  made  by  L.  Hartsough.  The  above 
books  are  the  fullest  collections  of  these  old  time  melodies.  Both 
are  rare,  but  the  latter  may  be  picked  up  in  second-hand  book 
stores  occasionally. 


i.  The  Rise  of  the  American  Spiritual 

In  swiftly  outlining  the  history  of  American  church 
music  the  claims  for  recognition  of  the  American  Spiri¬ 
tual  should  not  be  overlooked.  While  the  Presbyterians 
of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania  and  other  states,  and  the 
Congregationalists  of  New  England  were  singing  their 
fugue  tunes,  minor  as  well  as  major,  and  while  the  move¬ 
ment  for  a  more  sensible  church  music  under  the  leader¬ 
ship  of  Lowell  Mason  was  transforming  and  vitalizing 
the  congregational  song  of  the  Atlantic  Coast  churches, 
the  evangelistic  denominations, — the  Baptists,  the  Meth¬ 
odists,  the  United  Brethren  (not  Moravians)  and  other 
aggressively  missionary  denominations  in  the  Middle  and 
Southern  States — were  developing  an  entirely  new  type 
of  music. 


31 4 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 


315 


They  were  working  under  an  entirely  different  set  of 
circumstances  and  under  different  conditions  from  the 
established  churches  in  the  older  communities.  They 
entered  regions  without  religious  life,  with  very  little 
culture  and  education.  The  staid,  solemn,  often  lugu¬ 
brious  tunes  of  the  older  regions  would  find  no  appeal, 
even  if  they  had  been  known  by  the  people  they  wished 
to  reach. 

On  the  basis  of  the  old  Scottish  and  English  folk-songs 
that  still  survived,  and  by  the  help  of  the  current  Ameri¬ 
can  popular  songs,  they  developed  a  unique  music  that  ex¬ 
actly  fitted  their  needs. 

They  did  this  under  the  same  impulses  that  led  the 
early  Church  to  adopt  the  Grecian  melodies,  the  mediaeval 
composer  to  borrow  his  cantus  firmus  from  secular  songs, 
Luther  and  his  contemporaries,  Calvin,  Knox,  Bourgeois, 
Tallis,  to  draw  on  the  secular  sources  which  furnished  so 
many  of  their  melodies. 

Lowell  Mason  and  Thomas  Hastings  and  their  asso¬ 
ciates  wrote  rather  simple  tunes  for  the  at  best  poorly 
trained  churches  whom  they  tried  to  serve,  but,  after  all, 
their  conception  of  church  music  was  purely  worshipful 
and  stressed  the  Pauline  injunction,  “  Let  everything  be 
done  decently  and  in  order.”  The  evangelistic  denomina¬ 
tions  sang  these  tunes,  but  also  the  “  folk-song  ”  hymn 
tunes  and  “  camp-meeting  ditties,”  scorned  by  the  more 
formal  churches  with  a  strength  of  feeling  not  lessened 
by  denominational  prejudice  and  pride. 


2.  Body  of  “  Spirituals  ”  Lost 

Unfortunately  very  few  of  these  “  spirituals  ”  were 
ever  written  out  and  published,  and  fewer  still  have  sur¬ 
vived  the  utter  transformation  of  conditions  during  the 


316  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


last  fifty  years.  Then  there  has  been  an  attitude  of  de¬ 
precation  towards  them  on  the  part  of  the  churches  like 
that  of  educated  coloured  people  towards  the  Jubilee 
songs. 

This  attitude  is  all  the  more  unfortunate,  because  it  is 
everywhere  recognized  that  the  melodies  that  arise  among 
the  people,  and  are  adopted  by  them  more  or  less  per¬ 
manently,  have  a  vitality  and  genuineness  lacking  in  more 
ornate  or  studied  music.  Thibaut  says,  “All  the  melodies 
that  spring  from  the  people,  or  are  retained  by  them  as 
favourites,  are  generally  chaste,  and  simple  in  nature 
like  a  child’s/' 

These  “  spirituals  ”  are  genuine  “  folk-songs  ”  origi¬ 
nated  and  loved  by  the  stratum  in  our  American  social 
life  analogous  to  the  peasants  of  Europe.  The  great 
danger  is  that  nearly  all  record  of  a  very  interesting,  if 
not  intrinsically  valuable,  product  of  the  American  mu¬ 
sical  church  life  will  be  lost. 

In  England,  Ireland,  Scotland  and  among  the  various 
peoples  of  the  Continent  their  old  folk-songs  have  been 
gathered  up  with  great  industry  and  pains.  Even  in  our 
own  country  people  are  devoting  their  lives  to  the  secur¬ 
ing  of  the  savage  strains  of  the  surviving  aborigines. 
Why  should  not  this  unique  music  of  our  American  fore¬ 
fathers  meet  with  equal  interest  ? 


3.  Negro  Melodies  an  Outgrowth 

The  almost  amusing  result  of  this  obscurity  is  the 
credit  given  to  the  negro  race  of  the  South  for  this  class 
of  music.  The  Jubilee  songs,  in  so  far  as  they  have  had 
their  origin  among  the  coloured  people,  are  the  direct  off¬ 
spring  of  the  white  man’s  “  spiritual.”  Indeed  many  of 
the  songs  sung  by  them  are  “  spirituals  ”  borrowed  from 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 


317 


their  white  brethren,  the  rhythmical  swing  being  some¬ 
what  emphasized.  The  themes  of  Dvorak’s  American 
Symphony  are  not  Negro,  therefore,  but  Caucasian,  and 
the  result  more  directly  American  than  Dvorak  himself 
knew. 

Foster,  Hanby,  and  other  popular  song  writers  of  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century  did  not  get  their  in¬ 
spiration  from  the  slaves,  as  has  been  stated  on  high 
authority,  but  from  these  “  spirituals.”  A  collection  of 
the  words  of  “  spirituals  ”  was  compiled  by  William 
Hanby,  the  father  of  B.  R.  Hanby,  the  author  of  “  Darling 
Nellie  Gray.” 

The  negroes  were  simply  imitators,  even  in  the  minor 
strains  that  have  been  pathetically  characterized  as  the 
cry  of  the  sorrows  of  their  captivity.  Just  as  the  Gypsy 
music  in  Europe  differs  in  the  different  nations,  having  no 
common  basis  and  yet  striking  characteristics  in  each,  so 
Negro  music  imitates  the  music  of  the  whites  wherever 
the  races  come  in  contact,  adding  a  negroid  touch  of 
rhythm  or  foreign  tone  in  every  case.  This  is  true  in 
Jamaica,  in  the  Barbadoes,  in  Sierra  Leone,  as  well  as  in 
our  own  Southern  States. 

4.  The  Number  of  “  Spirituals”  Large 

The  number  of  these  “  spirituals  ”  was  large.  One 
collection  of  words  was  published  in  Philadelphia  in  1858, 
containing  over  three  hundred  choruses  alone.  Different 
denominations  and  states  had  repertoires  of  their  own, 
so  that  there  is  reason  to  believe  there  were  thousands  of 
them. 

5.  The  Origin  and  Spread  of  Individual  Songs 

Some  preacher  or  local  leader  had  an  inspiration  in  the 


318  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


furnace  heat  of  a  revival  meeting  and  produced  a  new 
chorus  that  was  connected  with  an  old  hymn.  If  it  struck 
fire,  it  was  carried  to  the  next  camp-meeting,  or  caught 
up  by  the  itinerant  or  presiding  elder  who  sang  it  wher¬ 
ever  he  went  and  so  it  was  widely  introduced.  As  it  was 
thus  orally  transmitted,  little  changes  were  often  made  in 
the  melody  until  it  met  the  needs  of  the  popular  con¬ 
sciousness.  It  then  had  its  little  day  of  use  and  finally 
dropped  out,  being  replaced  by  a  new  one. 

6.  Origin  of  the  Style 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  style  of  these  “  spiri¬ 
tuals  ”  originated  in  the  old  Scottish  songs  and  English 
ballads  brought  over  by  the  colonists,  some  of  which 
survive  back  in  the  mountains  of  the  Appalachian  range. 
Many  of  them  are  decidedly  Scotch  in  their  absence  of 
the  seventh  of  the  scale  and  the  emphasis  of  the  sixth. 
It  is  equally  certain  that  later  some  of  them  were  brought 
over  from  England  by  Methodist  immigrants  from  As- 
bury  onward.  But  there  is  nothing  Scotch  or  English  in 
the  rhythmical  momentum  of  these  old  choruses.  That  is 
characteristically  American.  Many  of  them  adopted  the 
tunes  and  parodied  the  words  of  American  popular  songs. 

Indeed  the  introduction  of  the  large  collection  alluded 
to  above  urges  “  the  salutary  tendency  of  an  attempt  to 
redeem  our  best  popular  airs  by  adapting  them  to  the 
songs  of  Zion/’  The  editor  also  quotes  with  approval 
“  the  language  of  an  old  divine,  ‘  Why,  there  are  only 
seven  or  eight  notes  to  all  the  tunes  in  the  world,  and  they 
all  belong  to  Jesus  Christ;  so  that  if  the  devil  wants  any 
fresh  ones,  he  must  make  them/  ” 

7.  Characteristics  of  the  “  Spiritual  ” 

(a)  Some  were  Ballads.  Some  of  these  “  spirituals  ” 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 


319 


are  sacred  ballads  and  were  sung  by  the  preachers  as 
solos.  An  itinerant  who  could  sing  solos  was  assured  a 
double  welcome  and  a  double  harvest  of  souls.1  There 
were  a  good  many  grace  notes  and  slurred  passing  notes 
in  their  solos  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  reproduce  on  a 
staff.  They  were  frequently  narratives  of  personal  ex¬ 
perience  : 


“  Ye  people,  that  wonder  at  me  and  my  ways, 

And  oft  with  astonishment  on  me  do  gaze, 

Come,  lend  your  attention,  and  I  will  relate 
My  past  exercises  and  my  present  state,” 

and  so  on  through  eight  stanzas. 

Another  favourite  was  entitled  “  Christ  in  the  Garden.” 
It  is  a  commingling  of  a  description  of  Gethsemane  and 
of  the  singer’s  conversion.  The  style  of  the  twelve 
stanzas  may  be  judged  from  the  two  which  follow: 


Christ  in  the  Garden 

“  While  nature  was  sinking  in  stillness  to  rest, 

The  last  beams  of  daylight  shone  dim  in  the  west; 
O’er  fields  by  the  moonlight,  my  wandering  feet 
Then  led  me  to  muse  in  some  lonely  retreat. 

“  While  passing  a  garden,  I  paused  then  to  hear 
A  voice,  faint  and  plaintive,  from  one  who  was  there ; 
The  voice  of  the  suff’rer  affected  my  heart, 

In  agony  pleading  the  poor  sinner’s  part,” 

and  so  on  for  ten  stanzas  more. 

^he  father  of  Prof.  D.  B.  Towner,  so  long  the  head  of  the 
musical  department  of  Moody  Bible  Institute,  was  known  as 
“  The  Singing  Parson,” 


320  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


The  melody  here  given  is  characteristic  of  the  major 
melodies  then  in  use,  but  is  possibly  from  a  secular  source, 
rather  than  of  genuine  “  spiritual  ”  origin.  There  was  a 
minor  setting,  infinitely  more  pathetic  and  sad,  full  of 
slurrings  and  quaverings,  but  memory  fails  to  reproduce 
it  and  it  does  not  appear  in  the  few  collections  accessible. 


IN  THE  GARDEN 


-9-  |  l  -61- 

While  na  -  ture  was  sink-ing  in  still  -  ness  to  rest,  ) 
The  last  beams  of  day-light  shone  dim  in  the  west;  ) 

D.C. — Then  led  me  to  muse  in  some  lone  -  ly  re  -  treat. 


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(b)  Spiritual  Hymn  Tunes.  There  were  hymns  with¬ 
out  choruses,  but  with  typically  “  spiritual  ”  tunes.  The 
following  is  one  of  the  few  whose  writer  and  composer 
are  known,  but  none  the  less  it  is  a  folk-song  of  unusual 
merit.  It  is  almost  a  pity  that  its  type  of  piety  no  longer 
finds  a  response  in  our  own  modern  churches ! 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 


321 


MY  BELOVED 


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322  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


Here  is  another  “  spiritual  ”  tune  which  has  been  prop¬ 
erly  displaced  by  “  Portuguese  Hymn,”  but  which  is  so 
good  that  its  death  and  burial  are  to  be  lamented. 


FOUNDATION 


Other  still  popular  tunes  of  “  spiritual  ”  origin  are 
“  Loving  Kindness  ”  and  “  Fountain.” 

( c )  “Spirituals”  with  Verse  and  Chorus.  A  more 
common  form  of  these  “  spirituals  ”  was  a  verse  and  a 
chorus.  Sometimes  a  standard  hymn  had  a  new  tune  and 
a  corresponding  chorus  given  it.  “  Jesus,  my  All,  to 
heaven  is  gone,”  and  “  Come,  Thou  Fount  of  every  bless¬ 
ing,”  were  particular  favourites.  The  tune  of  the  stanza 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 


323 


and  that  of  the  chorus  were  frequently  the  same,  except 
that  the  rhythm  of  the  chorus  was  made  more  pronounced 
by  giving  more  syllables  to  the  line. 

Then  there  were  “  spirituals  ”  like  “  Palms  of  Victory/’ 
which  is  even  yet  used  in  many  churches,  in  which  there 
was  an  original  hymn  with  its  appropriate  refrain.  A 
more  common  form  was  the  interlinear  refrain.  Here  is 
an  example  that  must  have  had  extraordinary  effective¬ 


ness. 


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1  9J 

i — %-■  « 

Save,  might  -  y 


Lord ! 
Lord  l 


Save  1  oh,  save  l 


|- - S 

■J-f— 

—0 — 

V7^~  i 

£2 

•5>-  • 

-T1 - n 

|§H— ^ 

1  la 

p  p 

a  P - 

ii 

Less  than  forty  years  ago  the  following  “  spiritual  ”  was 
still  sung  spontaneously  in  Southern  Ohio.  It  has  the 
genuine  penta tonal  characteristics  which  mark  aboriginal 


324  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


music  elsewhere  when  it  follows  a  definite  scale.  The 
effect  of  it  was  very  powerful.  It  had  great  dignity  as 
well  as  force. 


I  CAN’T  STAY  AWAY 

— l  .  |  1  - 

1  . 

— 1 - 1 - h5 — — 1— • -( - 

-zA - &  a  &  -fv  i - 1 

— s .  fl 

V 

Lr  '■  -v  fYt  f  r 

I  can’t  stay  an  -  y  long  -  er,  I  can’t  stay  a  -  way ! 


I  I  J  Is  h  k  !  |  f  42-  '  J  . 


(d)  The  Use  of  the  Pentatonic  Scale.  As  has  already 
been  stated,  in  many  of  these  “  spirituals  ”  the  sixth  note 
of  the  scale  has  a  predominance  that  gives  a  weird  effect 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 


325 


to  what  is  otherwise  a  major  melody.  As  good  an  ex¬ 
ample  as  any  is  the  chorus, 


I  WILL  ARISE 


Hundreds  of  thousands  of  persons  have  walked  to  the 
“  mourner’s  bench  ”  while  the  church  was  singing  this 
urgent  and  almost  hypnotic  appeal,  for  it  was  very  widely 
and  frequently  used. 

( e )  The  Minor  Element  in  “Spiritual  Songs.”  Plain 
minor  tunes  are  plentiful,  as  they  are  in  both  the  New 
England  and  English  hymnody.  Probably  investigation 
would  show  that  many  of  them  came  from  these  sources. 
The  minor  chorus  is  also  very  frequent.  The  minor  scale 


326  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


used  was  sometimes  the  harmonic,  and  sometimes  what 
may  be  called  the  natural — i.  e.,  without  accidentals — 
never  the  melodic. 

The  most  common,  perhaps,  was  a  mingling  of  minor 
and  major  phrases,  the  hymn  line  being  major,  the  inter¬ 
linear  refrain  minor,  and  the  succeeding  full  chorus  com¬ 
bining  both.  The  seventh  of  the  minor  scale  sometimes 
was  sharped,  but  usually  not.  A  very  excellent  specimen 
is  the  following: 

IN  THE  MORNING 

I- 


I  j  Oh,  come  and 

*  (  I’m  bound  fair 

*>  j  I’ll  join 

*  (  Where  sin 

j  A  few 

**  (  Will  land 

a  j  Oh,  what 

]  When  I 


.n 


with 

and 

more 

my 

a 

my 


-F 


go 

Ca  - 
those 
sor  • 
roll 
soul 
hap 
friends 

-O-  . 


-0. 

a  -  long 
naan’s  land 
who’ve  gone 
row  are 
ing  years 
on  Ca  - 
py  time 
in  heav’n 


with 

to 

be  - 

no 

at 

naan’s 

’twill 

shall 


me, 

see; 

fore, 

more; 

most 

coast; 

be, 

see; 


m 


-IP  ■ 


-h~ 


it: 


f 


Fine. 


a 


2 - E— 2. — A  -A? — ^ — A b—  - -2- 

i  ’■  i  f~l  t  t  i 


-0-  -0- 

For  we’ll  all 
D.S.  When  we  all 
?s  * 


9 


t- 


+■ 


rise  to  -  geth  -  er 
rise  to  -  geth  -  er 


u 

in  the 
the 


in 


morn 

morn 


mg* 

ing 


ip- 


£ 


t 


45C 


V 


4= 


p 


THE  AMERICAN  SPIRITUAL 


327 


8.  “  Spirituals  ”  Good  Church  Music  Because 

Efficient 

The  appeal  to  the  nerves  of  many  of  these  old  “  spiri¬ 
tuals  ”  was  something  extraordinary  among  a  people 
hidden  away  among  the  mountains  and  valleys  of  the 
great  Appalachian  range.  This  music  suited  the  people 
among  whom  it  was  produced  and  sung.  It  effected  the 
results  religious  music  is  intended  to  secure  and  hence 
was  good  church  music,  poor  as  it  may  appear  from  an 
artistic  standpoint.  Even  from  that  standpoint  it  has 
some  claim  on  our  attention  as  the  unique  product  of  a 
unique  age. 

9.  Influence  on  Succeeding  Movements 

Not  the  least  element  of  importance  in  the  “  Spirituals  ” 
was  its  influence  upon  the  succeeding  Sunday-school  Song 
and  the  Gospel  Song.  While  the  hymn  tune  of  Lowell 
Mason  and  his  associates  had  its  influence,  both  forms  of 
popular  sacred  music  rooted  deep  in  the  “  spiritual/’  as 
we  shall  see  in  later  chapters.  Without  its  simplicity  of 
harmony,  marked  tunefulness,  and  attractive  rhythms,  the 
later  music  would  not  have  had  the  world-wide  appeal 
and  the  religious  efficiency  it  has  so  signally  demon¬ 
strated. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  From  what  conditions  did  the  American  “  Spiritual  ”  arise? 

2.  Why  was  the  great  body  of  this  “  spiritual  ”  music  lost? 

3.  What  is  the  relation  of  this  music  to  the  Jubilee  songs? 

4.  Why  was  the  number  of  these  “  spirituals  ”  so  large? 

5.  How  did  the  individual  songs  originate  and  spread? 

6.  What  was  their  original  musical  basis? 

7.  In  what  different  forms  did  they  appear? 

8.  What  scale  characterizes  many  of  these  “  spirituals  ”  ? 

9.  How  were  the  major  and  minor  scales  used? 

10.  In  what  sense  was  this  music  “  good  ”  music? 

11.  What  contribution  did  it  make  to  succeeding  styles  of 
music? 


XXV 


AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC 

Supplementary  Reading:  Hall,  “  Gospel  Song  and  Hymn 
Writers,”  Revell,  N.  Y. ;  Curwen,  “  Studies  in  Worship  Music,” 
Second  Series,  Art.  “  The  Music  of  Sunday-Schools,”  Curwen, 
London. 

There  were  two  important  reasons  for  stressing  the 
American  Spiritual,  unknown  though  it  is  to  the  average 
American  minister:  (i)  it  is  too  important  a  phase  of 
pioneer  church  life  to  be  entirely  forgotten;  (2)  it  was 
the  immediate  parent  of  the  American  Sunday-school 
Song  and  of  the  Gospel  Song.  Indeed,  it  may  be  said  to 
be  the  original  Gospel  Song,  for  in  its  spirit,  in  its  im¬ 
mediate  purpose,  in  its  adaptation  to  immediate  popular 
religious  needs,  and  largely  in  its  form,  it  anticipated  our 
modern  popular  evangelistic  music. 

1.  The  Earliest  Sunday-School  Song  Books 

In  the  meantime  the  Sunday-school  had  taken  a  more 
important  place  in  American  church  life  and  the  need  of 
collection  of  hymns  and  music  for  its  use  had  been  felt. 
As  the  hymn  tunes  that  were  in  vogue  were  accessible 
in  printed  form,  and  as  these  collections  were  issued  in 
Atlantic  Coast  cities,  the  line  of  least  resistance  was  to 
use  the  hymns  in  the  hymnals  appropriate  to  work  among 
children  (and  a  good  many  that  were  not)  with  the  tunes 
that  were  usually  sung  with  them. 

This  probably  was  the  character  of  Hastings’  “  Juve¬ 
nile  Psalmody  ”  issued  in  1827  and  Bradbury’s  “  The 
Young  Choir,”  1841,  his  first  venture  revised  in  harmony 
by  Hastings,  and  his  “  Sunday-School  Melodies,”  1856. 

328 


AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC  329 


While  Mason  issued  many  juvenile  books,  they  were  for 
public  school  use  and  not  for  Sunday-school.1  This  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  Sunday-school  became  a  widely 
spread  “  movement  ”  in  America  as  early  as  1791. 

In  1857  Isaac  Baker  Woodbury  (1819-1859),  having 
helped  to  edit  the  Methodist  Hymn  Book  of  even  date, 
issued  a  song  book  for  use  in  Sunday-schools,  calling  it, 
after  the  fashion  of  those  days,  “  The  Sunday-School 
Lute.”  It  consisted  almost  wholly  of  hymns  transferred 
from  the  Methodist  Hymn  Book  with  tunes  gathered  from 
the  same  source.  A  very  few  songs  of  a  more  popular 
cast  were  included.  It  showed  little  adaptation  to  the 
needs  of  young  people,  much  less  to  those  of  children. 

Two  years  later,  in  1859,  William  Bradbury  (1816- 
1868)  issued  the  “  Oriola,”  built  on  very  much  the  same 
lines  as  Woodbury’s  “  Lute,”  except  that  he  supplied  a 
little  easy,  rhythmical  music,  such  as  he  had  been  using 
in  the  “  Rudiments  ”  prefixed  to  his  singing  school  books, 
and  a  few  of  the  “  camp-meeting  ditties  ”  or  “  spirituals  ” 

1  In  the  preface  of  Mason’s  “Young  Minstrel,”  a  book  for  the 
public  school  issued  by  T.  B.  Mason  in  1839,  there  is  an  argu¬ 
ment  for  children’s  music  that  is  cogent  still :  “  A  great  mistake 
has  been  made  by  some  persons,  who  seem  to  think  that  good 
music  is  all  that  is  necessary  for  children,  and  that  they  will  be 
as  well  pleased  with  ‘  Old  Hundredth  ’  or  ‘  Mear,*  or  any  good 
psalm  tune,  as  with  music  of  a  more  simple  and  cheerful  char¬ 
acter.  And  others,  fearful  that  their  children  will  acquire  a 
*  bad  taste,’  are  unwilling  to  have  them  sing  or  play  anything  but 
the  compositions  of  Handel,  Beethoven,  or  Weber.  If  such 
persons  act  upon  the  same  principle  in  teaching  their  children  to 
read,  they  would  not  allow  them  any  books  except  the  works  of 
Milton,  Shakespeare,  or  Homer.  And  it  is  quite  as  reasonable 
to  expect  children  of  nine  or  ten  years  to  be  interested  in  read¬ 
ing  ‘Hamlet,’  ‘Paradise  Lost,’  or  the  ‘Iliad,’  as  it  is  to  expect 
them  to  be  pleased  with  the  choruses  and  overtures  of  Handel, 
Beethoven,  or  Rossini.” 


330  THE  HISTOKY  OF  CHUKCII  MUSIC 


which  he  had  noted  and  arranged.  The  plain  unrhythm¬ 
ical  hymn  tune,  however,  made  up  the  bulk  of  the  book. 

2.  A  New  Style  of  Sunday-School  Music 

(a)  Horace  Waters'  “Sabbath-School  Bell.”  But 
now  appeared  a  new  force.  In  1S59  a  piano  merchant  of 
New  York  City,  Horace  Waters  (1812-1893),  brought 
out  “  The  Sunday-School  Bell.”  2  It  was  a  fairly  com¬ 
plete  departure  from  the  hymn  tune  ideal  of  Sunday- 
school  music,  as  its  preponderating  material  consisted  of 
arrangements  of  popular  secular  melodies,  more  or  less 
sentimental  in  character,  and  of  arrangements  of 
“  spirituals  ”  gathered  up  from  among  the  people.  The 
sentimental  and  stirring  rhythmical  elements  over¬ 
shadowed  the  sedater  hymn  tunes  completely. 

The  book  won  the  approval  of  the  Sunday-school 
workers  of  the  land  despite  its  literary  as  well  as  musical 
shortcomings.  In  his  preface  to  “  The  Sunday-School 
Bell  No.  2”  Mr.  Waters  states:  “This  was  the  first 
popular  Sunday-school  song  book  of  note  that  was  pub¬ 
lished.”  During  the  next  ten  years  nearly  a  million 
copies  were  sold. 

It  cannot  be  said  that  Waters  created  a  new  style  of 
Sunday-school  music.  He  wrote  no  new  music.  He 

2  Mr.  Waters,  although  a  business  man,  was  a  very  devout 
and  religiously  aggressive  man.  He  was  a  great  believer  in  the 
Sunday-school  and  made  addresses  and  sang  solos  in  Sunday- 
schools  as  opportunity  was  afforded.  He  had  a  fine  impressive 
appearance  and  was  a  widely  influential  and  useful  man.  His 
book,  therefore,  was  not  so  much  a  business  venture  as  an  out¬ 
growth  of  his  religious  work.  In  later  years  he  was  greatly 
interested  in  the  Freedmen,  founding  a  school  for  them  in  North 
Carolina.  He  was  also  an  ardent  propagandist  for  Prohibition 
by  song  and  address.  The  piano  business  he  founded  is  still  in 
existence  on  Fifth  Avenue,  New  York  City. 


AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC  331 


simply  compiled  the  already  existing  secular  and  religious 
folk-song  and  had  it  arranged  for  Sunday-school  use. 

( b )  Progress  of  the  New  Style  Under  Bradbury. 
Holding  singing  school  conventions  all  over  this  land, 
Bradbury  was  in  a  position  to  realize  that  Waters’  series 
was  better  adapted  to  the  tastes  and  needs  of  Sunday- 
schools  than  his  “  Oriola.”  When  he  issued  his  “  Golden 
Chain  ”  in  1861,  Bradbury  took  from  Waters’  book  only 
the  suggestion  that  what  the  Sunday-school  wanted  was 
more  lively  and  emotional  music  than  the  current  hymn 
tune  supplied,  and  he  wrote  new  songs  that  would  meet 
this  need. 

He  was  an  advanced  student  in  music,  having  spent 
two  years  in  England  and  Germany  under  leading 
teachers,  but  he  was  able  to  write  all  grades  of  music 
from  the  primary  song,  “  Jesus  Loves  Me,  This  I  Know  ” 
to  the  extensive  anthem. 

His  “  Golden  Chain  ”  was  more  widely  approved  than 
had  been  Waters’  “  Bell.”  Bradbury  had  a  better  literary 
taste,  although  some  of  the  hymns  he  used  left  very  much 
to  be  desired;  he  was  a  composer  of  merit  and  his  new 
songs  had  no  secular  associations,  while  they  were 
popular  in  style.  “  The  Golden  Chain  ”  sold  by  the 
hundred  thousand.  The  next  year  he  issued  “  The 
Golden  Shower  ”  which  again  had  an  enthusiastic 
welcome.  In  1863  he  revised  both  books,  adding  much 
new  material.  In  1864  “  The  Golden  Censer  ”  appeared, 
and  in  1866  a  combined  edition  of  all  three.  In  1868, 
just  before  his  death,  he  issued  “  Fresh  Laurels  ”  which 
was  a  distinct  advance  upon  his  previous  books  in  literary 
and  musical  merit. 

Bradbury  not  only  used  “  spirituals  ”  freely,  but  wrote 
a  number  of  songs  in  the  same  form  and  style,  but  always 
in  the  major  keys. 


332  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


It  should  be  said  that  Bradbury’s  books  contained 
many  dignified  hymns,  thoughtful  and  devout,  but  not 
always  adapted  to  use  among  young  people  and  children. 
Out  of  194  hymns  in  “The  New  Golden  Chain”  43  or 
over  one-fifth  were  about  heaven  or  the  dreariness  of 
this  world. 

When  we  analyze  the  music  we  find  that  out  of  15 1 
melodies  only  44  are  in  the  hymn  tune  style  and  of  these 
only  26  survive.  While  the  Bradbury  music  was  much 
better  on  the  average  than  the  Waters’,  it  is  still  very 
shallow  and  inexpressive,  as  compared  with  that  found 
in  present  Sunday-school  hymnals  of  a  popular  type. 

(c)  Imitators  of  Waters  and  Bradbury.  The  success 
of  Waters  and  Bradbury  very  naturally  led  others  to 
enter  the  field.  Philip  Phillips,  “  The  Singing  Pilgrim,” 
the  prototype  of  Sankey  and  McGranahan  and  an  army 
of  other  singing  evangelists,  issued  a  number  of  books,* 
of  which  perhaps  his  “  Singing  Pilgrim  ”  had  the  widest 
use.  Tullius  C.  O’Kane  issued  quite  a  series,  as  did  Asa 
Hull,  Theodore  E.  Perkins,  and  others. 

( d )  Further  Development  of  Bradbury’s  Work. 
After  the  death  of  Bradbury  his  business  passed  into  the 
hands  of  the  firm,  Biglow  and  Main.  They  secured  the 
cooperation  of  Rev.  Robert  Lowry  (1826-1899),  a  Bap¬ 
tist  Minister ;  Lowry’s  “  Gather  at  the  River  ”  had  come 
into  universal  use.  He  had  been  associated  with  S.  J. 
Vail  in  the  preparation  of  “Chapel  Melodies”  (1868), 
issued  by  the  same  house,  and  with  Wm.  F.  Sherwin 
and  Chester  G.  Allen  in  “Bright  Jewels  ”  (1869).  The 
latter  had  a  wide  sale,  over  300,000  copies  being  sold  in 
less  than  two  vears. 

In  1871  this  firm  published  “  Pure  Gold  ”  by  Mr. 

‘“Early  Blossoms”  (1862),  “Spring  Blossoms”  (1864), 
“Musical  Leaves”  (1866). 


AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC  333 


Lowry  and  W.  Howard  Doane  (1832-1918),  a  Baptist 
Sunday-school  superintendent  and  prominent  manufac¬ 
turer  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  whose  “  Little  Sunbeam  ”  and 
“  Silver  Spray  ”  had  had  a  phenomenal  sale.  This  book 
was  superior  in  literary  and  musical  value  to  anything 
that  had  appeared  before,  which  the  Sunday-school  public 
was  quick  to  see,  and  it  absorbed  over  a  million  copies. 
It  was,  like  “  Bright  Jewels/’  an  entire  departure  from 
the  old  hymn  tunes  and  the  church  hymn;  instead,  it  had 
a  rhythmical  freshness  and  variety  and  a  vigour  beyond 
any  collection  issued  before.  Subsequent  books  by  the 
same  composers,  “  Royal  Diadem,”  “  Better  than  Gold,” 
etc.,  were  well  received,  but  by  no  means  swept  the  field 
as  “  Pure  Gold  ”  had  done. 

The  monopoly  of  the  popular  church  music  by  the 
Gospel  Song  books  which  began  to  be  issued  in  1875,  as 
we  shall  see,  rather  limited  the  further  sales  of  this 
series  of  Sunday-school  song  books. 

The  combination  of  these  two  composers  was  a  very 
happy  one.  Dr.  Lowry,  with  adequate  literary  training, 
made  a  good  editor.  His  music  was  easy  and  popular, 
but  apt  to  be  thoughtful  and  sedate.  While  he  com¬ 
manded  the  rhythmical  swing  of  the  livelier  spirituals,  he 
rather  inclined  to  more  conservative  rhythms.  Dr. 
Doane,  on  the  other  hand,  was  an  extraordinarily  ener¬ 
getic  business  man  who  put  the  same  energy  into  his 
religious  and  musical  work.  His  music,  therefore,  shows 
more  of  the  Western  emphasis  of  rhythm  and  movement, 
although  as  a  tender,  emotional  man,  he  sometimes  dis¬ 
played  considerable  pathos.  “  I  Need  Thee  Every 
Hour  ”  by  Lowry  and  “  Rescue  the  Perishing  ”  by  Doane 
typify  the  music  of  the  two  writers. 

In  general,  the  music  of  both  men  was  eminently  vocal 
and  practicable;  in  other  words  it  was  singable.  Their 


334  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


range  of  chords  was  limited,  both  naturally  and  con¬ 
sciously,  and,  for  the  purpose  they  intended  it,  all  the 
better  for  the  limitation.  Not  approaching  composition 
by  way  of  the  piano  or  organ,  they  never  exceeded  the 
range  of  average  voices.  Their  music  had  more  expres¬ 
siveness  than  Bradbury’s  and  was  more  devout;  there 
was  no  background  of  the  singing-school,  as  in  Brad¬ 
bury’s  work. 

These  books  by  Lowry  and  Doane  excelled  those  of 
Bradbury  in  literary  excellence,  having  the  fuller  cooper¬ 
ation  on  the  texts  of  Fanny  Crosby,  who  had  only  oc¬ 
casionally  contributed  to  Bradbury’s  books.  Moreover, 
both  men  approached  the  work,  not  as  professional  mu¬ 
sicians,  but  as  Christian  workers.  Dr.  Lowry  was  a  pro¬ 
fessor  in  the  University  of  Lewisburg  and  afterwards 
entered  the  active  ministry.  Dr.  Doane  was  a  layman, 
but  superintendent  of  an  exceedingly  large  and  flourish¬ 
ing  Sunday-school  and  prominent  in  Young  Men’s  Chris¬ 
tian  Association  work  at  a  time  when  its  spiritual  mission 
was  emphasized  more  exclusively  than  it  is  now.  They 
naturally  laid  more  stress  upon  the  hymns  they  used,  and 
their  prominence  gave  them  access  to  the  writers  of 
sacred  verse.  The  widespread  use  of  their  books  stimu¬ 
lated  a  larger  circle  of  writers  in  giving  expression  to 
their  devout  feelings  and  thoughts  in  the  less  formal  verse 
adapted  to  Sunday-school  use.  There  was  therefore  a 
more  devotional  and  a  more  definitely  evangelistic  ele¬ 
ment  in  these  books  which  later  should  supply  a  large 
part  of  the  best  materials  for  the  series  of  “  Gospel 
Hymns.’* 

( e )  The  Music  of  Sweney  and  Kirkpatrick.  But  Lowry 
and  Doane  were  not  the  only  active  forces  in  the  field. 
Waters  and  Bradbury  had  been  attracted  by  the  lively, 
rhythmical  side  of  the  “  spirituals  ”  as  they  had  the  young 


AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC  335 


people  and  children  in  mind.  A  movement  entirely  im 
dependent  of  that  of  Bradbury,  Lowry,  and  Doane,  which 
(though  Bradbury  was  a  Methodist,  at  his  death  fell  into 
exclusively  Baptist  hands)  grew  out  of  the  more  devout 
side  of  the  “  Spiritual  ”  among  the  Methodists  of  Penn¬ 
sylvania  and  New  Jersey,  and  had  its  center  at  Phila¬ 
delphia  and  Ocean  Grove,  where  a  great  camp-meeting 
was  and  is  annually  held.  The  pioneers  of  this  move¬ 
ment  were  Rev.  J.  H.  Stockton,  W.  G.  Fischer,  and  espe¬ 
cially  William  J.  Kirkpatrick,  who  as  a  mere  boy  had 
arranged  and  harmonized  a  large  number  of  current 
“  Spirituals,”  as  we  have  already  seen.  Their  activities  at 
first  belong  to  the  history  of  the  Gospel  Song  where  they 
will  be  detailed  more  fully. 

The  needs  of  the  Ocean  Grove  Camp-meeting  finally 
led  to  the  issue  by  John  R.  Sweney  (1837-1899),  the 
musical  director  of  the  Pennsylvania  Military  Institute, 
who  had  charge  of  the  camp-meeting  music,  first  of 
“Gems  of  Praise  ”  (1873)  and  of  “Goodly  Pearls” 
(1875),  of  which  John  J.  Hood  was  associate  editor  and 
publisher.  In  1878  Mr.  Sweney  and  Wm.  J.  Kirkpatrick 
(1838-1921)  united  in  “The  Garner,”  in  1880  in  “The 
Quiver,”  and  from  year  to  year  until  Mr.  Sweney’s  death 
in  a  long  series  of  books  for  whose  names  space  is  lack¬ 
ing. 

Mr.  Sweney  was  a  commanding  personality,  and  made 
a  most  admirable  and  successful  leader  of  the  song  service 
at  Ocean  Grove.  He  was  a  much  better  musician  than 
either  Lowry  or  Doane,  using  a  wider  range  of  rhythm 
and  of  harmony,  but  having  sometimes  a  less  vocal  spon¬ 
taneity.  He  was  quite  original  and  fertile  of  mind  and 
his  music  shows  considerable  diversity  of  style.  His 
“  Beulah  Land  ”  and  “  Sunshine  in  my  Soul  ”  are  typical 
of  his  more  popular  music. 


336  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHIJKCH  MUSIC 


His  associate,  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  was  a  man  of  quieter 
and  less  commanding  temperament, — somewhat  less  of  a 
professional  musician  and  instrumentalist.  He  was  a 
successful  business  man  for  many  years  and  looked  upon 
his  musical  efforts  as  an  avocation  rather  than  as  a  voca¬ 
tion.  His  music  is  smooth  and  rhythmical  without  being 
mechanical,  fairly  animated  at  times,  particularly  in  his 
Sunday-school  songs,  but  he  was  at  his  best  in  the  quieter, 
devotional  style  represented  by  his  “  ’Tis  so  Sweet  to 
Trust  in  Jesus/’ 

(/)  The  Western  Development  of  Sunday-School 
Music.  The  western  school  of  Sunday-school  writers 
whose  importance  will  be  more  fully  dwelt  upon  in  the 
chapter  on  “  Gospel  Song,”  took  another  and  independent 
line  under  the  leadership  of  George  F.  Root.  He  had  large 
experience  in  the  singing  school  convention  work  and 
in  the  writing  of  easy  popular  music  for  his  department 
of  rudiments  in  his  books.  He  had  also  won  the  approval 
of  the  American  people  by  his  war  songs  which  had  unex¬ 
ampled  popularity.  Hence  he  was  in  closer  touch  with 
the  American  people  at  large  than  perhaps  any  of  the 
composers  already  mentioned. 

But  his  first  ventures  in  this  field  were  not  very  coura¬ 
geous,  small  paper  covered  booklets  with  fanciful  names 
such  as  The  Linnet,  The  Robin,  etc.,  which  were  presently 
gathered  up  in  “  Chapel  Gems  ”  (1868).  They  made  no 
great  impression.  He  had  associated  with  him  in  this 
book  the  composer  of  “  Darling  Nellie  Gray,”  Rev.  B.  R. 
Hanby,  who  wrote  just  enough  popular  religious  songs 
to  show  how  great  a  loss  the  American  churches  suffered 
in  his  untimely  death.  Even  yet  his  Christmas  carol, 
“  Who  is  He?  ”  is  a  standard  in  the  hymnals  of  Scotland. 

In  1870  appeared  Root’s  “  The  Prize,”  which  was 
more  worthy  of  his  great  melodic  talent  and  was  more 


AMERICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC  337 


widely  used.  The  book  has  the  additional  interest  that 
in  it  appear  the  first  songs  by  P.  P.  Bliss. 

Root’s  songs  bear  the  mark  of  the  singing  school 
teacher  and  the  successful  popular  song  writer.  There  is 
a  lack  of  devout  appeal  in  his  work.  With  “  Varina  ” 
and  “  The  Shining  Shore  ”  disappeared  the  last  of  his 
hymn  tunes.  He  could  write  a  rattling  good  tune  like 
“Where  are  the  Reapers?”  or  “Ring  the  Bells  of 
Heaven,”  but  there  his  appeal  stopped.  Bliss’  religious 
work  and  probably  less  matter-of-fact  temperament  pre¬ 
vented  the  same  limitation,  and  in  his  “  The  Charm  ” 
(1871),  in  which  first  appeared  many  of  his  songs  that 
later  found  so  hearty  a  response  when  “  Gospel  Hymns 
and  Sacred  Songs  ”  was  issued :  “  Hold  the  Fort,”  “  Al¬ 
most  Persuaded,”  “  Jesus  Loves  Even  Me,”  “  Let  the 
Lower  Lights  be  Burning,”  and  others. 

( g )  Less  Prominent  Sunday-School  Music  Composers. 
There  were,  of  course,  other  writers  of  Sunday-school 
songs  besides  those  already  mentioned.  H.  R.  Palmer, 
the  last  of  the  great  convention  leaders,  had  issued  a 
small  book  entitled  “  Palmer’s  Sabbath  School  Songs  ” 
in  1871.  It  contained  “  Yield  not  to  Temptation,”  which 
has  had  world-wide  use,  and  several  others  that  were 
quite  popular,  but  had  no  general  influence.  Emerson’s 
“  Glad  Tidings  ”  still  earlier,  in  1863,  cut  even  less  figure. 
J.  E.  Gould,  T.  E.  Perkins,  A.  J.  Abbey,  J.  R.  Murray, 
Rev.  E.  A.  Hoffman,  each  issued  a  series  of  these  books, 
many  of  them  quite  popular,  but  had  no  appreciable  in¬ 
fluence  on  the  character  of  the  Sunday-school  Song. 

3.  A  Modern  Style  of  Music 

In  1869  William  A.  Ogden,  another  successful  leader 
of  conventions,  issued  his  “  Silver  Song  ”  in  an  entirely 
different  style  from  any  of  the  foregoing.  He  was  not 


338  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


particularly  religious,  not  to  say  devout.  He  had  a  very 
lively,  aggressive  spirit  and  he  may  be  said  to  have 

originated  the  dotted  eighth  and  sixteenth  (  J  .  )  style 

of  Sunday-school  Song  which  Sankey  imitated  in  his 
“  When  the  Mists  have  Rolled  Away  ”  and  which  char¬ 
acterizes  J.  M.  Black’s  more  recent  popular  gospel  song, 
“  When  the  Roll  is  Called  up  Yonder.” 

His  book,  backed  by  an  extraordinarily  energetic  and 
resourceful  publisher,  W.  W.  Whitney,  had  an  immense 
vogue,  probably  over  a  million  copies  being  sold.  It  was 
reprinted  in  England  where  over  half  a  million  copies 
were  disposed  of.  Despite  the  fact  that  Ogden  wrote  in 
his  later  years  many  Sunday-school  and  gospel  songs  of 
real  value  (such  as  “  Look  and  Live,”  “  Bring  Them  in,” 
etc.),  his  later  books  had  a  greatly  diminished  sale. 

He  is  notable  chiefly  for  having  brought  to  the  front, 
if  he  did  not  originate  it,  a  style  of  rhythm  that  was 
imitated  by  lesser  composers  and  so  led  to  a  degradation 
of  this  form  of  church  music  to  a  merely  mechanical, 
soulless  rhythmic  clatter  with  little  melody  in  it. 

4.  The  Effect  of  the  Gospel  Song 

The  sudden  rise  of  the  Gospel  Song  in  1875  through 
the  world-wide  effect  of  the  Moody-Sankey  evangelistic 
campaigns  made  a  great  change  in  the  Sunday-school 
Song  situation.  It  narrowed  the  field,  because  many  of 
the  Sunday-schools  adopted  “  Gospel  Hymns  ”  for  their 
work.  It  led  to  the  making  of  general  purpose  song 
books  which  should  meet  the  needs  of  devotional  meet¬ 
ings,  evening  services,  evangelistic  campaigns  as  well  as 
of  Sunday-schools. 

The  series  of  “  Gospel  Hymns  Nos.  1-6  ”  held  the  field, 
because  of  the  Moody-Sankey  influence,  because  they 


AMEBICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC  339 


could  command  through  their  associated  evangelists  and 
singers  the  best  material,  because  of  the  rigid  exclusion 
under  the  copyright  laws  of  any  other  editors  and  pub¬ 
lishers  from  the  use  of  the  popular  songs  the  combina¬ 
tion  controlled.  During  this  period  appeared  the  Sun¬ 
day-school  song  books  of  J.  H.  Fillmore,  Chas.  H. 
Gabriel,  E.  S.  Lorenz  and  Isaiah  Baltzell,  J.  H.  Kurzen- 
knabe,  George  C.  Hugg,  and  many  lesser  lights,  some  of 
which  were  very  popular  and  had  large  sales. 

5.  The  Super-Modern  Style  of  Sunday-School 

Music 

Hitherto,  while  there  had  been  divergencies  of  per¬ 
sonal  style,  the  general  type  was  the  same.  It  was 
regular  four-part  music,  with  only  an  occasional  solo  or 
subrefrain  in  the  stanza.  In  1893  there  suddenly 
appeared  by  way  of  the  festival  services,  a  unisonal 
style  of  melody  with  an  instrumental  accompaniment 
and  with  antiphonal  passages  for  boys  and  men  and  for 
girls  and  women.  The  Flail-Mack  Company  of  Phila¬ 
delphia  and  The  Tullar-Meredith  Company  of  New  York 
were  the  original  representatives  of  this  new  style.  It 
first  was  used  in  Christmas,  Easter  and  other  festival 
services,  but  met  with  such  favour  there  that  books  in  the 
same  style  appeared. 

They  appealed  particularly  to  the  larger  city  Sunday- 
schools  where  there  were  pianos  and  other  instruments. 
The  melodies  themselves  were  rather  dignified  and  by  no 
means  as  rhythmical  as  many  of  those  of  older  songs,  but 
the  instrumental  accompaniment  supplied  that  want  in 
full  measure.  It  was  piano  music  and  the  churches  were 
filled  with  pianos  and  every  schoolgirl  could  play  them. 

This  music  was  excellent  for  festival  purposes  or  for 
hymns  of  inspiration  or  exhortation,  but  had  no  voice 


340  THE  HISTORY  OP  CHURCH  MUSIC 


for  the  tenderer  and  quieter  religious  emotions.  Mr.  J. 
Lincoln  Hall  and  I.  H.  Meredith  have  done  excellent 
work  in  this  style,  as  have  also  Adam  Geibel,  and  Ira  B. 
Wilson.  There  are  quite  a  number  of  other  composers 
who  have  succeeded  well  in  this  style.  Its  limitations 
have  been  realized  of  late  and  there  is  a  noticeable  return 
to  the  four-part  harmony. 

6.  American  Sunday-School  Music  Abroad 

Not  only  was  Mason’s  reform  in  church  tunes  largely 
adopted  in  Nonconformist  churches  in  England,  but  the 
more  popular  Sunday-school  Song  as  well.  It  even  found 
entrance  to  many  of  the  hymnals  for  church  use.  As 
New  England  reprinted  the  English  psalm  tunes  of  Play- 
ford,  Tansur,  Williams  and  Gardiner,  so  England  and 
Scotland  reprinted  American  hymn  tunes  and  Sunday- 
school  songs.4  It  set  the  English  composers  to  writing 
music  for  Sunday-schools  and  furnished  the  models. 
Even  the  more  recent  super-modern  style  has  had  imita¬ 
tors  during  the  last  two  decades.  The  exploiting  of  these 
songs  in  Sunday-school  work  in  missionary  fields  is  note¬ 
worthy,  little  else  being  used. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  was  the  “spiritual”  discussed  in  previous  chapter? 

2.  What  was  the  character  of  the  earliest  Sunday-school  song 
books  ? 

3.  Who  instituted  a  new  style  of  Sunday-school  music? 

4.  What  were  the  sources  of  the  music?  What  were  its 
characteristics? 

4  Some  years  ago  a  Scottish  song  book  fell  into  the  writer’s 
hands  and  he  was  amazed  to  find  that  all  its  contents  was  taken 
from  American  sources  and  a  large  share  from  one  of  his  own 
books!  No  credit  was  given  to  sources  or  to  American  com¬ 
posers. 


AMEKICAN  SUNDAY-SCHOOL  MUSIC  341 


5.  Who  developed  the  new  style  and  what  books  did  he 
issue? 

6.  In  what  respects  did  he  follow  up  the  ideas  of  Waters? 

7.  In  what  respects  were  Bradbury’s  books  superior  to  those 
of  Waters? 

8.  Give  the  names  of  other  composers  who  entered  this 
field. 

9.  By  whom  was  the  work  of  Bradbury  continued? 

10.  In  what  respects  were  the  books  of  Lowry  and  Doane 
superior  to  those  of  Bradbury? 

11.  What  independent  line  of  development  centered  at  Ocean 
Grove  Camp-meeting? 

12.  Give  the  characteristics  of  Sweney  and  of  Kirkpatrick. 

13.  Who  was  the  leader  of  the  Western  Sunday-school  music? 

14.  Who  were  his  leading  associates? 

15.  What  new  style  did  Ogden  originate  and  what  were  its 
ultimate  effects? 

16.  What  effect  had  the  Moody  and  Sankey  Gospel  Song 
campaign  on  Sunday-school  music? 

17.  What  writers  were  prominent  during  this  period? 

18.  What  characterized  the  super-modern  style  of  Sunday- 
school  music? 

19.  What  acceptance  did  this  American  Sunday-school  music 
find  abroad  and  what  was  its  effect? 


XXVI 


THE  GOSPEL  SONG 

Supplementary  Reading:  Benson,  “The  English  Hymn,”  pp. 
482-492,  Doran,  N.  Y. ;  Sankey,  “  My  Life  and  the  Story  of  the 
Gospel  Hymns,”  Sunday  School  Times,  Phila. ;  Hall,  “  Gospel 
Song  and  Hymn  Writers,”  Revell,  N.  Y. ;  “Memoirs  of  George 
C.  Stebbins,”  in  “  The  Choir  Deader,”  Eorenz  Publishing  Co., 
Dayton,  Ohio. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Sunday-school  song  is  a  hybrid 
produced  by  crossing  the  “  spiritual  ”  with  the  American 
hymn  tune.  It  had  the  harmonies  and  the  major  scale  of 
the  latter  with  the  freedom,  the  vigour  and  in  part  the 
form  of  the  sacred  folk-song.  The  Gospel  Song  while 
affected  by  the  same  influences  that  produced  the  Ameri¬ 
can  hymn  tune,  was  the  direct  outgrowth  of  the 
“  spiritual.” 

1.  The  Essential  Points  of  the  Gospel  Song 

What  is  a  gospel  song?  It  is  a  sacred  folk-song,  free 
in  form,  emotional  in  character,  devout  in  attitude,  evan¬ 
gelistic  in  purpose  and  spirit.  The  music  is  people’s 
music,  simple,  singable,  appealing.  The  hymns  are  more 
or  less  subjective  in  their  matter  and  develop  a  single 
thought  rather  than  a  line  of  thought.  That  thought 
usually  finds  its  supreme  expression  in  the  chorus  or  re¬ 
frain  which  binds  the  stanzas  together  into  a  very  close 
unity,  just  as  it  does  in  lyrical  poetry  where  it  is  occa¬ 
sionally  used.1 

1  The  refrain  and  chorus  are  spontaneous  forms  used  wherever 
songs  are  written, — in  the  Hebrew  psalms,  in  the  songs  of  the 
Troubadours,  in  the  boat  songs  in  the  heart  of  Africa,  or  in  the 

342 


THE  GOSPEL  SONG 


343 


2.  The  Gospel  Song's  Inheritance  from  the 

“  Spiritual  " 

As  has  been  said,  the  “  spiritual  ”  was  the  original 
Gospel  Song.  It  was  born  amid  evangelistic  campaigns 
and  in  a  revival  atmosphere.  Under  the  influence  of  cur¬ 
rent  secular  song,  of  the  introduction  of  organs  and 
pianos,  and  of  the  wider  use  of  American  hymn  tunes,  it 
changed  its  minor  and  pentatonic  scales,  into  the  major 
scale  and  its  unison  into  four-part  music.  What  it  took 
the  Christian  Church  a  thousand  years  to  do  was  done 
here  in  half  a  generation.  The  parallel  is  really  remark¬ 
able.  But  its  devoutness  and  consciousness  of  the  divine 
presence  and  blessing — its  subjectiveness — remained. 
Its  single-hearted  devotion  to  all  efforts  to  win  sinners 
and  formal  Christians  to  a  “  conscious  salvation  ”  was  the 
same.  Its  appeal  to  popular  feeling  and  instinct  con¬ 
tinued. 

The  gathering  up  of  the  words  of  spirituals  in  leaf¬ 
lets,  booklets,  and  books,  finally  culminated  in  two  collec¬ 
tions,  containing  the  melodies  as  well,  one  in  1859  com¬ 
piled  by  A.  S.  Jenks  and  arranged  and  harmonized  by 
William  J.  Kirkpatrick,  later  so  prominent  in  the  editing 
of  gospel  song  books,  and  the  other,  “  The  Revivalist,” 
issued  in  1867  by  Joseph  Hillman  with  “  spirituals  ”  ar¬ 
ranged  by  Louis  Hartsough,  whose  “  I  hear  Thy  welcome 
voice  ”  is  a  classic  and  has  been  sung  around  the  world. 

They  were  typical  gospel  song  books  in  purpose  and  in 

adaptation  to  evangelistic  work  and  to  devotional  meet- 

» 

rude  formless  cries  of  the  medicine  men  or  witch  doctors  among 
the  American  Indians.  To  decry  their  use  in  Sunday-school 
and  gospel  songs  is  to  plead  guilty  to  ignorance  of  fundamental 
lyrical  impulses  of  the  human  mind.  However,  that  they  are 
used  too  frequently  and  too  mechanically  cannot  be  gainsaid. 


344  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


ings.  They  mark  the  transition,  not  only  by  the  four- 
part  harmony  supplied  to  the  spirituals,  by  the  shearing 
off  of  the  ornamental  quaverings  and  slides,  in  which 
especially  soloists  had  indulged,  and  by  the  changing  of 
the  melodies  where  they  were  independent  of  a  harmonic 
basis  and  indulged  in  tones  that  could  not  be  harmo¬ 
nized — just  as  the  mediaeval  composers  treated  the  discant 
they  borrowed  from  secular  songs, — but  also  by  bring¬ 
ing  new  songs  of  a  distinctly  modern  Gospel  Song  type. 
They  were  written  chiefly  by  Methodist  preachers  of  an 
ultra-evangelistic  turn. 

3.  The  Originators  of  the  Gospel  Song 

(«)  The  Methodist  Writers  of  Philadelphia.  In  the 
years  following  the  issue  of  these  two  collections,  Rev. 
J.  H.  Stockton,  Mr.  Kirkpatrick,  William  G.  Fischer  and 
others  were  sending  out  little  booklets,  containing  dis¬ 
tinctly  gospel  songs,  for  use  in  the  camp-meetings,  held 
in  various  parts  of  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  Delaware 
and  Maryland. 

Some  of  our  classic  gospel  songs  appeared  in  these 
collections:  Stockton’s  “Only  Trust  Him,”  “The  Pre¬ 
cious  Blood  ”  and  “  The  Great  Physician,”  Fischer’s  “  I 
am  Coming  to  the  Cross  ”  and  “  I  Love  to  Tell  the  Story,” 
Grape’s  “  Jesus  Paid  it  All,”  Kirkpatrick’s  “  Jesus 
Saves.” 

(h)  Philip  Phillips.  During  this  time  “The  Singing 
Pilgrim,”  Philip  Phillips,  had  been  issuing  books  con¬ 
taining  not  only  some  spirituals  and  more  gospel  songs 
such  as  his  “  The  Beautiful  Land,”  but  also  the  sacred 
solos  he  sang  everywhere,  including  “  My  Mission,”  by 
S.  M.  Grannis,  which  he  sang  before  President  Lincoln. 
In  these  books  appeared  O’Kane’s  “  The  Home  Over 
There.”  The  musical  activities  of  Phillips  were  wide 


THE  GOSPEL  SONG 


345 


and  indefatigable.  He  sang  his  solos  in  camp  and  hos¬ 
pital,  in  conventions  and  churches,  for  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and 
Christian  Commission,  as  opportunity  offered.2  Not  the 
least  contribution  to  the  preparation  of  the  Moody  and 
Sankey  campaign  in  England  was  Phillips'  introduction 
of  the  new  American  Sunday-school  and  gospel  music, 
personally  and  by  the  publication  of  a  very  widely  used 
book,  “  The  American  Sacred  Songster.”  Phillips'  later 
“  Hallowed  Songs  ”  was  a  typical  “  Gospel  Song  ”  book, 
being  used  by  Sankey  in  the  beginning  of  his  evangelistic 
singing  with  Moody  in  England. 

There  had  been  a  great  number  of  devotional  song 
books  published  up  to  this  time  by  denominational  pub¬ 
lishing  houses  and  private  individuals.  They  were,  in 
general,  combinations  of  standard  hymns  with  some 
gospel  songs  and  spirituals.  Asa  Hull,  S.  J.  Vail,  and 
others  were  active  in  this  devotional  line,  but  the  books 
had  no  influence  upon  the  general  course  of  Gospel  Song 
history. 

(c)  W.  Howard  Doane.  In  1870  W.  H.  Doane  issued 
“  Devotional  Songs  ”  for  use  in  Y.  M  .C.  A.  religious  and 
evangelistic  work.  In  it  he  gathered  the  distinctly  de¬ 
votional  and  evangelistic  songs  which  had  been  appearing 
in  the  Sunday-school  song  books  Bradbury  and  Lowry 
and  he  had  been  preparing,  besides  some  new  ones,  in¬ 
cluding  the  classics,  “  Pass  Me  Not  ”  and  “  Rescue  the 

8  To  make  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  movement  in  the  “  sixties,”  with  its 
activities  among  the  soldiers  and  sailors  on  land  and  sea,  the 
mainspring  of  the  development  of  the  Gospel  Song  as  does  Dr. 
Benson,  is  to  take  one  of  the  effects  of  the  new  musical  impulse 
for  its  cause.  The  Y.  M.  C.  A.  does  not  originate;  it  uses  with 
matchless  skill  what  resources  it  finds  to  hand.  Of  course,  it 
cooperated  with  other  influences  in  introducing  the  new  popular 
sacred  song. 


346  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHUEOH  MUSIO 


Perishing.”  It  had  a  large  proportion  of  plain  hymn 
tunes,  perhaps  half,  and  hence  was  typical  of  later 
popular  hymnals  rather  than  of  subsequent  collections  of 
gospel  songs. 

(d)  Chaplain  C.  C.  McCabe.  In  1872,  Chaplain,  later 
Bishop,  McCabe,  who  had  been  doing  a  good  deal  of 
singing  in  his  evangelistic  and  other  tours,  compiled  the 
best  gospel  songs  extant  in  the  East,  particularly  in  the 
books  of  Bradbury  and  Lowry  and  Doane,  in  his  “  Win¬ 
nowed  Hymns,”  a  very  useful  book  that  had  a  very  wide 
sale.  This  was  a  definitely  Gospel  Song  collection. 

( e )  P.  P.  Bliss.  In  1874,  P.  P.  Bliss,  who  at  this  time 
had  joined  Major  Whittle  as  singing  evangelist,  published 
his  “  Gospel  Songs  ”  which  contained  a  number  of  very 
effective  things,  originally  appearing  in  Root’s  and  Bliss’ 
Sunday-school  books.  The  fact  of  Bliss’  use  of  this 
title  for  his  previous  book  shut  it  out  from  consideration 
when  “  Gospel  Hymns  ”  was  christened. 

(/)  Ira  D.  Sankey.  It  will  thus  be  seen  that  Sankey 
did  not  originate  the  Gospel  Song  during  his  first  cam¬ 
paign  in  England,  as  is  often  stated.  The  English  people 
had  been  using  Bradbury’s  and  Root’s  tunes  and  Sun¬ 
day-school  songs  before  Sankey’s  time.  These  evangel¬ 
istic  and  devotional  songs  by  Lowry,  Doane,  Bliss  and 
others  were  new  to  them.  Their  segregation  from  the 
other  American  music  brought  out  the  inherent  type, 
and  the  English  very  happily  named  them  Gospel  Songs. 

Sankey’s  own  contributions  were  negligible  until  some¬ 
time  later.  He  never  became  a  full-fledged  composer. 
He  furnished  a  crude  outline  of  a  melody  and  Hubert  P. 
Main,  musical  editor  of  Biglow  and  Main’s  publications 
and  subsequently  of  many  church  hymnals,  did  the  rest. 

As  it  was,  the  Moody  and  Sankey  movement  entered  a 
rich  heritage  that  in  the  providence  of  God  had  been 


THE  GOSPEL  SONG 


347 


preparing  for  half  a  century,  all  ready  made  for  the  use 
of  their  work. 

4.  The  Origin  of  the  “Gospel  Hymns”  Series 

(a)  The  Editorial  Combination.  In  England  Sankey 
could  make  his  rapidly  appearing  booklets  of  “  Sacred 
Songs  and  Solos  ”  unhampered  by  American  copyright 
and  finally  gather  them  up  in  a  book,  but  when  he  came 
back  to  the  United  States,  he  could  not  do  so.  As  P.  P. 
Bliss  with  Major  Whittle  belonged  to  Moody’s  great 
evangelistic  corps,  and  was  a  competent  composer  and 
musical  editor,  it  was  decided  that  he  should  become  the 
senior  editor  and  Sankey  the  associate  in  the  making  of 
an  evangelistic  song  book  suitable  for  the  whole  force 
doing  evangelistic  work  under  Moody’s  auspices. 

As  The  John  Church  Co.  had  inherited  Bliss  from  thq 
firm  of  Root  and  Cady  of  Chicago  after  the  great  Chicago 

'  Via.  1 

fire,  this  brought  together  the  copyright  resources  of 
Biglow  and  Main  and  The  John  Church  Co.,  the  two 
largest  publishers  of  popular  sacred  music  in  the  land. 
The  result  of  the  union  of  editorial  and  publishing  forces 
was  “  Gospel  Hymns,”  into  which  was  gathered  the  very 
choicest  gospel  songs  written  in  America  during  the 
previous  fifteen  years. 

( b )  The  Wide  Sale  of  “  Gospel  Hymns  ”  The  sale  of 
this  book  swept  America  from  ocean  to  ocean  and  across 
the  waters  to  foreign  lands.  These  songs  had  already 
won  England,  now  they  passed  over  to  the  Continent  in 
translations  and  were  widely  used  in  Protestant  Europe. 
Even  sedate  Germany  had  its  own  edition  and  presently 
it  led  to  an  indigenous  Gospel  Hymn  of  its  own,  favoured 
by  the  Nonconformists  and  the  Pietist  faction  of  the  State 
Church.  Missionaries  all  over  the  world  translated  the 
hymns  into  the  language  of  the  peoples  for  whom  they 


348  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


were  working,  and  so  the  tide  of  Gospel  Song  encircled 
the  globe. 

As  all  the  best  songs  had  been  gathered  into  “  Gospel 
Hymns  No.  i  ”  only  second-rate  material  was  left  for 
“  Gospel  Hymns  No.  2  ”  and  the  new  songs  by  Bliss  and 
Sankey  did  not  raise  the  standard  sufficiently  to  repeat 
the  success  of  “  No.  I.”  The  accession  of  Jas.  H.  Mc- 
Granahan  and  George  C.  Stebbins  added  new  attractive¬ 
ness  to  subsequent  numbers  and  the  sale  improved  some¬ 
what,  but  never  again  reached  the  extraordinary  figures 
of  “  Gospel  Hymns  No.  i.” 

( c )  The  Change  in  Style.  As  the  series  progressed, 
the  simplicity  of  the  music  of  “  No.  i  ”  became  less  con¬ 
spicuous.  Sankey  was  a  leader  of  singing  in  public  as¬ 
semblies,  not  a  choral  leader.  His  outstanding  concern 
was  to  have  the  people  sing.  Bliss  and  McGranahan  and 
others  had  been  convention  leaders,  where  they  had  great 
choirs  to  deal  with.  Hence  the  simple  melodies  like 
“  Hold  the  Fort/’  “  Rescue  the  Perishing,”  “  I  Need 
Thee  Every  Hour,”  were  followed  by  more  elaborate 
songs  with  broken  time  (Not  fugues!  there  never  was 
the  faintest  trace  of  fugal  work  in  the  songs)  and 
somewhat  more  varied  harmonies. 

5.  Gospel  Songs  by  Other  Writers 

It  was  psychologically  inevitable  that  the  old  simplicity 
should  be  submerged  by  the  conscious  effort  to  write  new 
and  better  songs,  and  it  showed  itself  in  the  songs  written 
by  other  composers.  For  after  the  first  submerging, 
which  met  the  issues  of  other  Gospel  Song  writers  when 
“  Gospel  Hymns  No.  1  ”  appeared,  other  Gospel  Song 
writers  and  publishers  took  heart  again  and  went  on  with 
their  work. 

The  Sweney  and  Kirkpatrick  books,  contributing 


THE  GOSPEL  SONG 


349 


Sunday-school  and  gospel  songs  with  perhaps  a  little 
more  emphasis  on  the  latter  appeared  annually  as  before. 
After  Sweney’s  death  Kirkpatrick  and  Gilmour  continued 
the  series.  The  former  also  edited  a  large  number  for 
various  evangelists  and  publishing  houses. 

D.  B.  Towner  in  connection  with  his  work  as  musical 
director  of  the  Moody  Bible  Institute  issued  an  excellent 
series  beginning  with  “  The  Gospel  Pilot  Hymnal.”  He 
had  previously  prepared  some  very  popular  collections, — 
“  Songs  of  Free  Grace,”  “  Hymns  New  and  Old  ”  Nos. 
i  &  2.  His  “Trust  and  Obey”  and  “Anywhere  with 
Jesus  ”  first  appeared  in  these  books. 

J.  Lincoln  Hall  and  Austin  R.  Miles,  later  assisted  by 
Adam  Geibel,  issued  a  series  of  combination  Gospel  Song 
and  Sunday-school  Song  books  published  by  The  Hall- 
Mack  Co.,  of  Philadelphia,  containing  some  popular 
gospel  songs,  including  “Does  Jesus  Care?”  by  Mr. 
Hall  and  “  Stand  up  for  Jesus,”  a  very  effective  and 
widely  used  setting  of  the  old  hymn  by  Adam  Geibel  in 
the  modern  unison  style.  Austin  R.  Miles  wrote  the 
very  widely  used  and  popular  song,  “If  Jesus  Goes  With 
Me.”  Denominational  publishing  houses  issued  their 
own  Gospel  Song  books,  having  in  mind  the  needs  of  their 
organized  young  people  as  well  as  of  the  regular  devo¬ 
tional  and  evangelistic  phases  of  church  life.  The  Chris¬ 
tian  Endeavour  and  Epworth  League  organizations  also 
issued  books  for  their  young  people. 

6.  The  New  Evangelistic  Campaigns  and  Their 

Songs 

But  all  this  was  running  on  past  momentum  and  run¬ 
ning  down.  A  new  evangelistic  impulse  was  needed 
which  finally  came  with  the  campaigns  of  Torrey  and 


350  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Alexander,  1903,  in  this  country,  in  England  and  round 
the  world,  and  later,  those  of  Chapman  and  Alexander. 

(a)  Preparatory  Work  by  Edwin  0.  Excell.  In  un¬ 
conscious  preparation  for  this  great  campaign,  E.  O. 
Excell,  until  then  a  stone  mason  in  northern  Ohio,  a 
natural  leader  of  song,  with  a  great  voice,  began  in  1885 
in  Chicago  the  publication  of  a  series  of  Gospel  Song 
books.  He  was  the  very  successful  song  associate  of  Sam 
Jones,  the  evangelist  and  lecturer  of  unique  personality. 
This  connection  gave  occasion  for  the  widespread  use  of 
his  books. 

( b )  Sources  of  ExcelVs  Songs.  Mr.  Excell  was  like 
Sankey  in  being  a  fine  leader  of  a  multitude  in  song,  but 
not  so  much  of  a  musician.  He  wrote  the  melodies  of  a 
number  of  very  successful  songs  which  were  completed  by 
competent  composers,  including  Chas.  H.  Gabriel.  The 
songs  of  the  latter  were  Excell’s  greatest  asset,  as  they 
have  been  that  of  Rodeheaver  more  recently.  W.  A. 
Ogden  supplied  him  with  some  most  popular  material 
such  as  “  Look  and  Live.”  Travelling  in  Sunday-school 
conventions,  he  came  into  touch  with  writers  of  hymns 
and  of  music  who  supplied  attractive  material.  “  Loyalty 
to  Christ  ”  and  “  The  King’s  Business  ”  by  the  Cassels, 
Rev.  E.  T.  and  Flora  H.,  were  among  these  happy  finds. 

( c )  Success  of  ExcelVs  Music  in  England  and 
America.  This  music,  with  some  of  Towner’s,  and  Fill¬ 
more’s  “  Tell  Mother  I’ll  be  There,”  Alexander  took  to 
England  and  around  the  world  and  duplicated  Sankey’s 
success,  although  the  very  opposite  of  the  elder  leader  in 
personality  and  methods  of  work.  The  Excell  books 
now  dominated  the  situation  and  scores  of  Gospel  Song 
books  were  issued  by  divers  church  and  private  publish¬ 
ing  houses  all  based  on  the  Excell  copyrights  and  editor¬ 
ship. 


THE  GOSPEL  SONG 


351 


This  music  was  western,  with  few  songs  by  eastern 
composers.  It  was  animated,  rhythmical,  excitant,  with 
very  little  of  the  quiet  devotional  style.  It  was  very 
good  revival  campaign  material,  but  failed  in  the  quiet 
prayer  meeting. 

( d )  The  Rodeheaver  Songs.  In  1912  Homer  A. 
Rodeheaver  became  “  Billy  Sunday’s  ”  musical  associate 
and  began  a  series  of  evangelistic  song  books  that  have 
had  wide  use.  Mr.  Chas.  H.  Gabriel  being  musical 
editor  and  supplying  a  great  deal  of  material,  and  the 
use  to  which  these  books  are  being  put  being  much  the 
same,  the  general  style  of  the  songs  is  much  like  that  of 
the  Excell  books.  Instead  of  “  The  Glory  Song  ”  by 
Gabriel,  we  have  the  same  writer’s  “  Brighten  the  Corner 
Where  You  Are  ”  as  the  organizing  song.  The  rather 
slight  emphasis  on  the  devotional,  characteristic  of  the 
“  Sunday  ”  meetings,  is  reflected  in  the  music  of  these 
books. 

( e )  The  Music  of  Chas.  H.  Gabriel.  While  Gabriel 
is  an  exponent  of  the  freer  and  more  rhythmical  west¬ 
ern  type  of  gospel  music,  he  has  not  had  a  pronounced 
style  of  his  own, — perhaps  for  that  very  reason  has  writ¬ 
ten  a  great  many  exceedingly  popular  gospel  songs,  such 
as  “  He  Lifted  Me,”  “  Higher  Ground,”  “  Since  Jesus 
Came  into  My  Heart,”  “  Hail,  Immanuel,” — probably 
more  than  any  other  living  writer.  Many  of  his  songs 
have  texts  written  by  himself  under  the  nom  de  plume, 
“  Charlotte  G.  Homer.”  He  has  not  only  been  an  extra¬ 
ordinarily  fertile,  but  a  versatile  composer,  succeeding  in 
many  lines,  such  as  anthems,  men’s  quartets,  cantatas, 
etc. 

Another  successful  Gospel  Song  writer  cooperating 
with  Mr.  Rodeheaver  is  W.  D.  Ackley,  whose  songs  have 
had  a  wide  use,  notably:  “I  am  Coming  Home,”  “If 


352  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


Your  Heart  Keeps  Right/’  and  “  I  Shall  Dwell  Forever 
There.” 

7.  Apparent  Close  of  the  Gospel  Song  Epoch 

The  change  in  the  musical  taste  of  the  churchly  mu¬ 
sical  public  and  the  marked  decrease  in  the  voltage  of  the 
evangelistic  impulse  in  the  evangelical  Protestant 
churches,  is  already  felt  in  the  slowing  down  of  the  pro¬ 
duction  of  gospel  songs.  The  leading  composers  of  this 
type  of  music  are  rather  elderly  men,  and  younger  com¬ 
posers  are  turning  their  energies  to  other  lines  of  com¬ 
position,  lacking  the  fundamental  popular  appeal. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  How  was  the  “  spiritual  ”  transformed  into  the  Gospel 
Song? 

2.  What  are  the  characteristics  of  a  Gospel  Song? 

3.  How  wide  is  the  use  of  the  refrain  or  chorus? 

4.  Outline  the  progress  of  the  transition  as  found  in  publica¬ 
tions. 

5.  What  was  Philip  Phillips’  share  in  the  introduction  of  the 
early  Gospel  Song? 

6.  What  typical  Gospel  Song  collections  were  issued  before 
“Gospel  Hymns  No.  1”? 

7.  How  did  the  term  “Gospel  Song”  originate  and  where? 

8.  What  was  the  strength  and  what  the  limitations  of 
Sankey’s  musical  powers? 

9.  How  did  “Gospel  Hymns”  come  to  be  issued? 

10.  How  far  did  its  influence  extend? 

11.  Give  the  history  of  the  later  numbers  of  the  series. 

12.  What  other  collections  of  gospel  songs  were  issued? 

13.  What  change  took  place  in  the  style  and  grade  of  difficulty 
in  the  later  Gospel  Song  collections? 

14.  What  new  evangelistic  campaigns  took  place  and  what 
new  composers  appeared? 

15.  What  position  does  Gabriel  hold  in  respect  to  this  new 
Gospel  Song  movement? 


XXVII 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MOTETS  AND  ANTHEMS 

Class  Room  Suggestion:  It  may  be  found  more  practical  to 
assign  this  chapter  as  one  to  be  read  without  recitation  or  dis¬ 
cussion  in  the  class. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Myles  B.  Foster,  “Anthems  and  An¬ 
them  Composers,”  Novello,  London;  Grove’s  “Dictionary  of 
Music  and  Musicians,”  articles  “  Motet,”  and  “  Anthem,”  Pres- 
ser,  Philadelphia. 

As  in  formal  church  services  of  every  kind,  liturgical 
and  non-liturgical,  the  anthem  is  an  important  feature,  it 
is  desirable  to  know  its  history  and  development. 

i.  Distinction  Between  Motet  and  Anthem 

It  is  well  to  clearly  fix  the  characteristics  of  motets  and 
anthems. 

The  motet  was  the  product  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It 
was  nearly  always  set  to  Latin  words  taken  from  the 
Scriptures  or  from  the  Missal.  It  was  sung  without  ac¬ 
companiment  until  the  sixteenth  century.  It  was  poly¬ 
phonic  in  character  and  more  or  less  elaborate,  and  grew 
in  length  until  it  became  almost  a  cantata  in  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century.  In  Germany  the  text  finally  became 
German. 

The  anthem  is  of  English  origin,  growing  out  of  the 
motet  during  the  time  of  the  Reformation  when  its  chief 
difference  was  its  English  text.  Its  development,  how¬ 
ever,  was  different  from  that  of  the  motet  on  the  conti¬ 
nent.  It  received  a  freer  treatment  and  was  more  varied 

353 


354  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


in  form.  There  was  the  full  anthem,  the  verse  anthem 
and  presently  the  hymn  anthem.  The  words  anthem  and 
motet  are  often  used  interchangeably  as  synonyms,  but  it 
is  wiser  to  make  the  proper  distinction. 

The  etymology  of  the  word  motet  is  very  uncertain. 
It  may  be  derived  from  the  Italian  motetto,  a  diminutive 
of  motto,  which  originally  was  applied  to  a  form  of 
secular  composition. 

The  derivation  of  the  word  anthem  is  equally  obscure. 
Its  genealogy  may  be  Greek  antiphona,  Italian  antifona, 
French  antienne,  Early  English  ante f re,  then  antem,  then 
anthem.  If  that  is  the  proper  origin  its  antiphonal 
suggestion  seems  to  have  been  lost  very  early. 

2.  The  Development  of  the  Motet 

(a)  Continental  Beginnings.  It  was  almost  inevitable 
with  the  secular  musical  activity  among  the  people  in  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  and  the  enlargement  of 
musical  resources,  that  the  musical  clergy  should  be 
stirred  to  some  further  development  of  the  church  music. 
The  Gregorian  chants  were  officially  fixed  and  the  way 
to  development  there  was  barred. 

But  unofficial  additions  were  permitted,  if  not  encour¬ 
aged,  and  passages  of  Scripture  and  of  the  Breviary  begun 
to  be  set  for  this  purpose.  They  were  more  elaborate 
than  the  chants  and  yet  undoubtedly  simple  in  structure. 
Possibly  at  the  very  first  they  were  still  in  unison  like  the 
chants,  only  more  varied,  but  soon  developed  the  use  of 
the  discant. 

They  were  also  less  rigidly  ecclesiastical  in  style,  being 
affected  by  current  popular  melodies.  As  early  as  1290 
Philippus  de  Vetriaco  issued  a  book  of  motets  which,  as 
Morley  says,  “  were  for  some  time  of  all  others  best 
esteemed  and  most  used  in  the  church.” 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MOTETS  AND  ANTHEMS  355 


Like  others  of  that  age,  they  were  crude  attempts  at 
two-part  harmony.  The  setting  of  the  mass  and  the 
motets  was  very  similar,  except  that  the  treatment  of  the 
former  became  more  and  more  complicated  and  pedantic. 

( b )  The  First  Epoch  of  English  Motets.  The  First 
Epoch  of  really  expressive  motets  embraces  the  last  years 
of  the  fourteenth  century  and  the  first  half  of  the 
fifteenth.  England  was  represented  by  Dunstable,  who 
slightly  preceded  Dufay,  Binchois,  Eloy  Brasert  and 
Faugues,  and  whose  surviving  work  shows  him  the  peer 
of  the  Netherlanders.  Combined  with  the  proof  afforded 
by  the  round,  “  Sumer  is  y-cumen  in,”  whose  perfection 
of  contrapuntal  correctness  displays  a  skill  in  the  early 
thirteenth  century  not  developed  elsewhere  at  that  time, 
it  shows  that  English  musicians  were  the  leaders,  if  not 
the  fons  et  origo  novce  artis ,  of  the  developing  counter¬ 
point  of  the  north. 

( c )  The  Second  Epoch.  The  Second  Epoch  extended 
from  1450  to  about  1500.  O’Keghem  is  the  acknowl¬ 
edged  master,  although  Caron,  Gaspar,  de  Fevin,  Ho- 
brecht  and  Basiron  had  an  almost  equal  repute.  This 
school  made  of  the  music  of  the  mass  an  opportunity  to 
show  their  contrapuntal  skill  and  extraordinary  ingenuity. 
The  motet  on  the  contrary  was  less  studied,  and  had 
greater  breadth  and  simplicity  of  musical  design. 

( d )  The  Third  Epoch.  The  Third  Epoch  which  over¬ 
lapped  the  second  as  epochs  in  history  often  do,  for  sev¬ 
eral  decades,  continued  until  1521,  the  date  of  the  death 
of  Josquin  des  Pres,  the  pupil  of  O’Keghem,  and  the 
shining  light  of  this  period. 

The  Flemish  school  made  such  rapid  advances  that 
they  were  recognized  as  the  leaders  of  Europe.  With 
scarcely  an  exception  their  motets  were  based  on  a 
cantus  firmus  taken  from  some  solemn  plain  song,  or 


356  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


some  well-known  secular  melody.  One  of  the  parts,  most 
frequently  the  tenor,  takes  the  simple  theme  in  whole  and 
half  notes,  while  the  other  parts  decorate  it  with  a  filigree 
of  florid  counterpoint,  in  lavish  imitation  and  other  con¬ 
trapuntal  devices.  Setting  aside  the  pedantry  that  so 
often  disfigured  the  mechanical  settings  of  the  mass,  they 
sought  to  express  the  feelings  of  the  chosen  text. 

The  texts  were  quite  varied.  There  are  numerous  texts 
taken  from  the  Gospels,  whose  subjects  are  treated,  not 
indeed  with  dramatic  power,  but  with  a  profound  sense 
of  their  deeper  meaning,  ranging  from  the  exalted  praise 
of  the  Magnificat  to  the  tragic  sadness  of  the  Passion  of 
our  Lord.  Perhaps  the  finest  music  of  this  era  is  con¬ 
tained  in  the  Passion  Motets. 

The  Book  of  Canticles  furnished  favourite  texts  for 
these  composers,  as  did  “  The  Lamentations  of  Jeremiah.” 

Perhaps  the  favourite  theme  was  the  Madonna,  in 
whose  praise  Josquin  des  Pres,  as  well  as  Brumel,  Arca- 
delt,  and  Loyset  Compere,  wrote  their  most  beautiful 
motets. 

Many  motets  were  written  to  add  interest  to  the  great 
festival  days  of  the  Church,  as  well  as  the  name  days  of 
the  more  prominent  saints.  There  were  even  motets, 
laudatory  of  the  reigning  potentates  and  princes  by  com¬ 
posers  connected  with  their  courts. 

( e )  The  Fourth  Epoch.  The  Fourth  Epoch,  1521  to 
1565,  was  rather  a  time  of  degradation  for  the  motet  as 
well  as  the  mass.  Josquin  des  Pres  had  a  hundred  imita¬ 
tors  of  his  faults  rather  than  of  his  virtues.  Ribald 
tunes,  and  even  words,  were  associated  with  both  masses 
and  motets.  Musical  puzzles  for  the  amusement  of  the 
trained  singers  of  the  choirs  were  set  to  sacred  texts  for 
them  to  solve  as  best  they  could. 

Of  course,  not  all  knees  bowed  to  the  musical  Baal  of 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MOTETS  AND  ANTHEMS  357 


frivolity,  and  there  were  some  excellent  motets  written 
by  Goudimel,  Willaert,  Costanza  Festa,  and  Morales. 
The  influence  of  madrigal  writers  like  Arcadelt  and 
Verdelot  was  fortunately  sane  and  artistic  and  continued 
the  progress  of  really  musical  development. 

(/)  The  Fifth  Epoch.  The  alarming  progress  of  the 
Reformation  in  the  North,  and  the  awakening  of  the 
religious  life  of  the  Roman  Church  in  the  Counter- 
Reformation,  as  well  as  the  disgust  of  the  devout  souls 
among  both  the  clergy  and  the  laity,  brought  on  a  reaction 
against  this  orgy  of  irreverence  and  vulgarity,  and  the 
authorities  at  Rome,  incited  by  a  strong  resolution  from 
the  Council  of  Trent  against  these  musical  abuses,  pro¬ 
ceeded  to  purge  the  services  of  the  church  from  these 
unworthy  musical  practices. 

Palestrina  led  not  only  in  the  restoration  of  worthy 
mass  music  in  his  famous  “  Missa  Papae  Marcelli,”  but 
ushered  in  the  Fifth  Epoch  of  the  motet,  the  Golden  Age 
of  Roman  Church  music.  He  composed  hundreds  of 
motets  fully  equal  in  contrapuntal  skill  and  devoutness  of 
spirit  to  his  exquisite  masses.  But  he  not  only  wrote  in 
the  complicated  counterpoint,  but  in  the  familiar  style, 
varying  the  ceaseless  movement  of  his  voices  with  strong, 
impressive  series  of  plain  chords  like  stately  psalm  tunes. 

Other  Italian  composers,  his  peers  in  contrapuntal 
facility,  in  unbounded  wealth  of  musical  resources,  in 
harmonic  strength  and  expressiveness,  although  lacking, 
perhaps,  his  suavity  of  melody  and  devoutness  of  spirit, 
were  Vittoria,  Morales,  the  Anerios,  the  Naninis,  and 
Marenzio.  Orlando  di  Lasso  was  prominent  in  Flanders, 
Willaert,  di  Rore,  the  Gabriellis,  and  Croce  in  Venice, 
Tallis  and  Byrd  in  England.  The  mediaeval  polyphonic 
music  reached  its  crest  in  the  motets  of  the  Fifth  Epoch. 

(g)  The  Sixth  Epoch.  The  Sixth  Epoch  beginning 


358  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


with  the  seventeenth  century  was  again  a  time  of  deca¬ 
dence.  The  masters  were  dead.  A  new  musical  era  was 
preparing,  but  had  not  come  to  fruition.  Ideas  of  har¬ 
mony  were  changing.  The  modern  scales  with  their  new 
harmonies  were  coming  into  use. 

( h )  The  Seventh  Epoch.  The  Seventh  Epoch  brought 
in  the  instrumental  accompaniment  about  the  middle  of 
the  seventeenth  century.  The  old  ecclesiastical  modes 
were  abandoned  and  the  modern  tonality  held  full  sway. 
With  new  forms  of  expression  and  wider  resources 
Scarlatti,  Pergolesi,  and  others  wrote  magnificent  motets 
in  the  new  manner. 

( i )  The  Eighth  Epoch.  The  Eighth  Epoch  found  its 
greatest  development  in  Germany.  Motets  of  Keiser, 
Johann  Christopher  Bach,  and  his  even  greater  nephew, 
Johann  Sebastian  Bach,  Graun,  Hasse  and  even  Handel 
are  the  glories  of  this  period  in  which  the  contrapuntal 
strength  of  the  Fifth  Epoch  were  reinforced  by  the  more 
varied  modern  harmony  and  the  power  of  the  organ  and 
other  instruments. 

(/)  The  Ninth  Epoch.  The  motets  of  the  Ninth 
Epoch,  the  nineteenth  century,  are  in  the  main  cantatas 
rather  than  motets.  Haydn,  Mozart,  Cherubini,  tran¬ 
scended  the  limits  of  the  typical  motet,  although  their 
music  is  most  impressive  and  beautiful.  Mendelssohn 
alone  seems  to  have  succeeded  in  exemplifying  the  type 
in  a  way  worthy  to  be  classed  with  the  great  writers  of 
the  eighteenth  century. 

3.  The  Development  of  the  Anthem 

In  England  the  motet  after  the  Reformation  was  trans¬ 
formed  into  the  anthem,  which  had  a  separate  develop¬ 
ment  and  a  renewed  vigour.  It  was  given  an  English  text, 
differing  at  first  in  that  particular  only  from  the  motet. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MOTETS  AND  ANTHEMS  359 


Indeed,  the  same  composition  was  called  a  motet  with 
Latin  and  anthem  with  English  text. 

(a)  The  Early  Period  (1520-1625).  As  we  have 
seen,  the  English  composers  from  the  beginning  had  been 
to  the  fore  in  the  writing  of  the  motets.  Tallis  and  Byrd 
shared  with  Palestrina,  Orlando  di  Lasso,  Willaert  and 
others  the  glory  of  the  Golden  Age  of  polyphonic  church 
music.  Hence  the  foundation  of  the  anthem  which  suc¬ 
ceeded  was  broad  and  strong.  The  masters  of  the  motet, 
Tallis,  Byrd,  Tye,  Gibbons,  turned  from  the  writing  of 
motets  with  Latin  texts  to  the  writing  of  anthems  to 
English  texts,  and  found  a  new  inspiration  in  the  fresher 
rhythms  and  accentuation  of  the  new  texts. 

At  first  the  anthems  were  “  full,”  that  is,  were  for  a 
full  chorus  like  a  motet.  Later  in  this  period  “  verse  ”  or 
solo  anthems  appeared,  Gibbons  appearing  to  be  the 
leader. 

During  this  period  the  organ  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  used,  but  there  is  frequent  provision  in  the  music  for 
“  viols.”  This  string  orchestra  was  in  unison  with  the 
voices,  but  filled  in  the  vocal  rests,  or  were  used  for 
“  symphonies,”  or  interludes,  for  several  measures. 
Afterwards  the  organ  was  introduced  for  the  full  chorus, 
but  the  stringed  instruments  accompanied  the  solo  parts 
of  the  “  verse  ”  anthem. 

(b)  The  Second  Period  ( 1650-1720).  While  the  com¬ 
posers  of  the  early  period  were,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
still  under  the  dominion  of  the  mediaeval  motet,  the  com¬ 
posers  of  the  Second  Period,  chiefly  represented  by  the 
organists  connected  with  the  court  of  Charles  II,  through 
him  fell  under  the  influence  of  Lully,  the  Italian  opera 
writer,  who  won  so  high  a  place  in  the  court  of  Louis 
XIV  of  France,  and  developed  a  more  varied  and  even 
secular  type  of  the  anthem.  Pelham  Humfrey  had  been 


360  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


trained  under  Lully.  Wise,  Blow,  Henry  Purcell,  Croft, 
Weldon  and  Jeremiah  Clarke  had  been  either  directly  or 
indirectly  pupils  of  Humfrey. 

This  led  to  an  entire  change  in  the  spirit  and  character 
of  the  anthem.  Mere  formulas  were  set  aside  and  new 
forms  and  fresh  details  were  sought.  There  were  strik¬ 
ing  and  even  daring  harmonies  and  the  parts  were 
smoother  and  more  melodious.  There  is  evidenced  a 
minuter  study  of  the  text,  and  greater  pains  were  taken 
to  make  the  music  fit  the  flow  of  its  varied  feeling.  In 
general,  there  was  more  emotionality  and  expressiveness. 

Henry  Purcell  has  been  recognized  as  the  genius  of  this 
group,  as  he  excelled  not  only  in  anthem  writing,  but  in 
every  form  of  writing  then  current.  His  early  death  at 
the  age  of  thirty-seven  has  been  lamented  as  a  great  loss 
to  English  music,  as  his  music  gave  promise  of  even 
greater  work  to  follow. 

The  verse  or  “  solo  ”  anthem  was  characteristic  of  this 
period,  as  the  full  anthem  had  been  of  the  previous  one. 
In  many  of  them  the  choir  only  sang  an  introduction  or 
a  finale. 

The  accompaniment  took  a  more  prominent  place  dur¬ 
ing  this  period.  The  anthems  became  more  and  more 
fully  orchestrated,  trumpets,  hautboys,  bassoons,  flutes, 
and  even  drums,  being  added  to  the  bow  instruments. 
The  pleasure  of  the  dissolute  King  in  light,  frivolous 
music  led  to  unchurchly  compositions.  Pepys  in  his  diary 
records  that  “  One  of  his  Majesty’s  chaplains  preached, 
after  which,  instead  of  the  ancient,  grave,  and  solemn 
weird  music  accompanying  the  organ,  was  introduced  a 
concert  of  twenty-four  violins  between  every  pause,  after 
the  French  fantastical,  light  way,  better  suiting  a  tavern, 
or  playhouse  than  a  church.” 

While  this  period  shared  in  the  low  spirituality  that 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MOTETS  AND  ANTHEMS  361 


characterized  the  religious  life  of  the  whole  nation  (affect¬ 
ing,  as  we  have  seen,  the  psalm  tunes  as  well),  its  in¬ 
fluence  in  breaking  down  the  rigidity  of  the  old  anthem 
ideals  was  a  distinct  service  and  made  the  varied  and 
adaptable  anthem  of  to-day  possible. 

(c)  The  Third  Period  (1J20  to  the  present).  The 
leading  anthem  composers  of  the  early  part  of  this  period 
were  Maurice  Green,  William  Boyce,  Attwood,  Battishill, 
Hayes,  Walmisley.  There  was  little  of  novelty  developed 
in  this  school  of  writers,  but  they  were  more  churchly 
and  devout  in  spirit.  They  were  later  followed  by  Sir 
John  Goss,  Samuel  Sebastian  Wesley,  and  later  still  by 
Barnby,  Stainer,  West,  Parry,  Stanford  and  others. 

4.  American  Anthems 

The  development  of  American  anthems  has  been  on 
entirely  different  lines.  There  have  been  so  many  in¬ 
fluences  affecting  it,  that  it  is  difficult  to  chart  out  the 
path  it  has  taken. 

(a)  Early  American  Anthems.  In  connection  with  the 
old  New  England  Psalmody,  there  were  occasional  an¬ 
thems  published,  most  of  which  were  reprints  of  short, 
easy  English  compositions.  They  were  of  the  fugal 
order,  akin  to  the  fugal  tunes.  The  original  American 
anthems  were  composed  on  the  same  model.  Many  of 
the  more  elaborate  fugue  tunes  were  practically  choir 
anthems.  The  word  “  motet  ”  was  used  for  short  sen¬ 
tences,  rather  than  for  the  larger  anthem  form,  although 
the  two  names  were  used  interchangeably. 

( h )  Anthems  by  Mason  and  His  Associates.  How¬ 
ever,  the  reforms  instituted  by  Lowell  Mason  swept 
away  all  that  had  gone  before  in  the  way  of  anthems. 
His  problem  was  to  supply  choir  music  for  volunteer 
choirs  of  little  culture  and  merely  sight  reading  training. 


362  THE  HISTOEY  OP  CHUECH  MUSIC 


He  found  some  material  in  England,  more  in  Switzerland 
and  Germany,  which  had  the  necessary  simplicity  and 
attractiveness.  To  this  he  added  very  simple,  straight¬ 
forward  compositions  of  his  own,  or  by  his  associates, 
that  served  his  immediate  purpose.  His  limitations  as  a 
composer  were  more  evident  here  than  in  his  hymn  tunes. 

Some  of  the  convention  leaders  associated  with  him 
displayed  more  architectonic  gifts.  Luther  O.  Emerson 
did  not  succeed  it  writing  acceptable  hymn  tunes  as  did 
Mason,  but  was  far  superior  to  him  in  the  writing  of 
anthems.  While  William  B.  Bradbury  is  remembered 
chiefly  by  his  Sunday-school  and  gospel  songs,  he  wrote 
some  attractive  anthems  in  a  purely  popular  style.  These 
earlier  anthems  were  without  instrumental  accompani¬ 
ment,  based  not  on  principle,  but  on  the  general  lack  of 
instruments. 

(c)  The  Dudley  Buck  School  of  Anthem  Writers. 
While  both  Mason  and  Bradbury  had  European  training, 
the  limitations  imposed  upon  them  by  their  work  among 
the  people  kept  them  free  from  an  academic  attitude  and 
assured  their  pure  Americanism.  But  when  Dudley 
Buck  returned  from  his  training  abroad  to  the  better 
trained  choirs  of  Eastern  cities,  he  united  to  his  American 
sense  of  practical  efficiency  a  more  scholarly  bent  of 
mind,  producing  a  long  series  of  anthems  particularly 
adapted  to  the  needs  of  more  or  less  well  trained  quartet 
choirs,  thus  establishing  an  entirely  different  type  of  an¬ 
them  from  those  of  Mason  and  Emerson.  Other  writers 
like  Harry  Rowe  Shelley  and  P.  A.  Schnecker  were 
rather  prolific  in  this  quartet  choir  music. 

( e )  Present  Tendencies  in  American  Anthems.  The 
Dudley  Buck  type  has  been  greatly  influenced  by  current 
English  anthem  music  and  has  become  more  churchly, 
more  syllabic,  more  typically  worshipful.  The  composi- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  MOTETS  AND  ANTHEMS  363 


tions  of  Horatio  W.  Parker,  Arthur  Foote,  George  W. 
Chadwick,  and  others  of  our  American  composers,  are 
very  much  superior  from  an  artistic  standpoint  to  current 
scholarly  music  in  England. 

Among  the  recent  writers  of  this  artistic  music  may 
be  mentioned  Jas.  H.  Rogers,  George  B.  Nevin,  W.  R. 
Spence,  A.  W.  Lansing,  W.  H.  Neidlinger,  Paul  Am¬ 
brose,  W.  Berwald,  G.  W.  Marston,  Chas.  F.  Manney, 
C.  W.  Hawley,  Daniel  Protheroe.  It  is  still  American  in 
its  availability,  and  in  its  freshness  and  charm,  having 
escaped  the  woodenness  of  so  much  of  present  day  Eng¬ 
lish  anthem  music. 

While  the  Lowell  Mason  type  has  become  somewhat 
more  strong  and  varied  in  harmony,  and  has  acquired  an 
instrumental  accompaniment,  it  retains  the  popular 
rhythmicalness  and  emotionality.  The  popular  anthem 
tradition  of  Mason  was  continued  by  writers  of  singing 
school  books  such  as  George  F.  Root,  I.  B.  Woodbury, 
H.  R.  Palmer,  C.  C.  Case,  M.  L.  McPhail,  H.  P.  Danks, 
and  by  most  of  the  writers  of  Sunday-school  and  gospel 
music  like  Lowry,  Doane,  Ogden,  Sherwin,  Seward,  Kirk¬ 
patrick,  Sweney  and  others.  In  the  last  few  decades 
these  popular  anthems  from  the  pens  of  E.  L.  Ashford, 
Oley  Speaks,  Ira  B.  Wilson,  H.  W.  Porter,  E.  S.  Lorenz, 
J.  S.  Fearis,  J.  A.  Parks,  Charles  H.  Gabriel,  J.  Lincoln 
Hall,  T.  Martin  Towne,  Carrie  B.  Adams,  E.  K.  Heyser, 
J.  B.  Herbert,  Paul  Bliss,  and  others,  have  so  increased  in 
strength  and  general  artistry,  that  many  of  them  approach 
the  sedate  Dudley  Buck  style  in  quality.  Never  has  the 
popular  anthem  in  America  been  as  worthy  of  respect  as 
now. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Why  is  a  knowledge  of  the  history  of  the  anthem  im¬ 
portant? 

2.  What  is  the  distinction  between  a  “  motet  ”  and  an 
“  anthem  ”  ? 


364 


THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


3.  What  are  the  three  forms  of  anthems? 

4.  Describe  the  beginning  and  early  development  of  the 
motet. 

5.  What  proof  have  we  of  the  quality  of  the  early  English 
motet? 

6.  Who  were  the  leading  composers  of  motets  in  the  Second 
Epoch  ? 

7.  What  were  the  striking  features  of  the  motet  in  the  Third 
Epoch? 

8.  What  unfortunate  conditions  prevailed  in  the  Fourth 
Epoch  ? 

9.  Who  were  the  shining  lights  of  the  Fifth  Epoch? 

10.  What  other  great  composers  brightened  that  epoch? 

11.  Why  was  the  Sixth  Epoch  a  time  of  decadence? 

12.  What  changes  took  place  in  the  Seventh  Epoch? 

13.  Who  were  the  German  motet  writers  of  the  Eighth  Epoch? 

14.  In  the  last  century  what  change  has  taken  place  in  the 
motet? 

15.  What  was  the  chief  difference  between  a  motet  and  an 
anthem  in  early  English  Reformation  times? 

16.  Who  were  the  founders  of  the  English  anthem? 

1 7.  What  ideals  governed  the  composition  of  anthems  in  the 
Second  Period? 

18.  Who  were  the  leading  composers  of  this  period? 

19.  What  were  the  characteristics  of  the  Third  Period? 

20.  What  was  the  form  of  the  early  American  anthem? 

21.  What  was  the  character  of  the  anthems  introduced  by 
Mason  and  his  associates? 

22.  Who  of  his  followers  outranked  Mason  as  an  anthem 
writer? 

23.  What  influence  did  Dudley  Buck  exert? 

24.  Give  the  names  of  the  composers  of  his  school. 

25.  What  influence  has  affected  the  ideals  of  artistic  American 
composers? 

26.  Who  may  be  mentioned  as  leaders  in  this  modern  artistic 
church  music? 

27.  Who  were  the  popular  anthem  writers  after  Mason? 

28.  Give  the  names  of  recent  writers  of  popular  anthems. 

29.  What  change  has  taken  place  in  the  average  quality  of 
their  compositions? 


XXVIII 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHURCH  CANTATAS 

Class  Room  Suggestion:  If  time  is  lacking  for  a  full  recita¬ 
tion  on  this  chapter,  it  can  be  assigned  as  a  reading  chapter. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Grove,  “  Dictionary  of  Music  and 
Musicians,”  Arts.  “  Cantata,”  “  J.  S.  Bach,”  and  “  Oratorios  ”  ; 
Dickinson,  “Music  in  the  Western  Church”;  Parry,  “Johann 
Sebastian  Bach,”  Putnam,  N.  Y. 

i.  Oratorio  and  Cantata  Defined 

An  oratorio  is  an  extensive  musical  composition  con¬ 
sisting  of  solos  and  choruses  with  a  more  or  less  religious 
text,  Biblical  or  otherwise,  accompanied  by  full  orchestra, 
or  by  organ,  to  be  rendered  without  action,  costumes,  or 
scenery.  Its  name  was  derived  from  the  fact  that  it  was 
first  sung  in  a  large  and  public  way  in  the  oratory,  or 
chapel,  in  the  church  of  S.  Maria  in  Valicella,  under  the 
direction  of  S.  Neri,  the  founder  of  the  congregation  of 
Oratorians. 

A  church  cantata  is  a  composition  of  less  extent  and 
less  elevated  style  than  the  oratorio  set  to  religious  words 
and  primarily  intended  for  church  use,  being  sung  with¬ 
out  action,  costumes,  or  scenery.  There  is  really  a  very 
slight  line  of  demarcation  between  a  short  oratorio  and  a 
lengthy  cantata,  hence  they  are  treated  concurrently. 

2.  Origin  of  the  Two  Forms 

Yet  their  immediate  origin  was  quite  different.  The 
church  cantata  grew  out  of  the  secular  cantata  which  was 
at  first  a  musical  recitation  with  occasional  chords  on  an 
instrument.  This  monody  was  also  the  basis  of  the  opera. 

365 


366  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


When  the  religious  texts  were  employed  and  applied  to  the 
usage  of  singing  the  text  of  the  Gospels  during  the  serv¬ 
ices  of  the  Passion  week,  established  long  before  the 
monodic  impulse  was  felt,  the  church  cantata  was  pro¬ 
duced.  To  apply  it  to  other  festival  occasions  and  even 
to  regular  services  was  an  easy  step. 

The  likeness  between  the  oratorio  and  the  church 
cantata  was  so  great  they  developed  together,  despite  the 
fact  the  oratorio  was  seldom  used  in  church  service,  ex¬ 
cept  at  Christmas  and  Easter,  while  the  cantata  often 
took  the  place  of  the  motet  in  the  church  service. 

While  the  secular  cantata  was  developed  in  Italy,  there 
was  little  or  no  interest  there  in  the  church  cantata,  unless 
the  musical  mass,  the  Te  Deum,  and  the  Stabat  Mater  are 
to  be  subsumed  under  this  term.  It  was  not  until  the 
Protestant  composers  of  the  north  saw  the  necessity  of 
the  musical  enrichment  of  their  services,  that  the  church 
cantata  found  its  full  development. 

3.  The  Transformation  of  the  Miracle  Play 

The  miracle  play  is  the  parent  of  the  oratorio.  Among 
the  illiterate  peoples,  some  of  them  only  recently  won 
from  paganism,  it  was  only  possible  for  many  centuries 
to  impress  them  with  the  Biblical  history  by  means  of 
preaching.  In  the  twelfth  century  the  idea  was  conceived 
of  impressing  the  eye  as  well  as  the  ear  by  means  of 
dramatic  representations  of  Biblical  scenes  and  of  moral 
allegories  in  rather  popular  style.  By  the  end  of  the 
century  these  miracle  plays,  as  they  were  called,  were  in 
quite  common  use  in  England  and  were  very  popular. 
They  survived  there  for  over  two  centuries. 

They  were  introduced  a  little  more  slowly  on  the 
Continent,  being  in  general  use  in  Italy  in  the  thirteenth 
century  and  in  Germany  and  Bohemia  in  the  fourteenth. 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHUECH  CANTATAS  367 


As  their  use  became  general,  abuses  crept  in.  They  be¬ 
came  frivolous,  and  even  vulgar,  and  church  authorities 
sought  to  prevent  them.  In  the  sixteenth  century  S. 
Philip  Neri  of  Rome  believing  the  essential  principle  a 
good  one  introduced  them  as  part  of  week  night  services 
held  in  his  oratory,  introducing  sacred  music  of  a  popular 
kind  as  a  prominent  feature  in  them.  His  sermons  pre¬ 
ceded  or  followed  them.  The  name  oratorio  was  soon 
accepted  for  these  sacred  plays  with  music,  not  only  in 
Rome,  but  throughout  the  Church. 

Their  subjects  were  chosen  from  the  Bible  and  from 
the  lives  of  favourite  saints,  or  based  on  moral  allegories. 
“  The  Conversion  of  Paul,”  “Abraham  and  Isaac,  his 
Son,”  “  Abel  and  Cain,”  “  Lamentation  of  Mary,”  “  The 
Spiritual  Comedy  of  the  Soul  ”  were  characteristic  titles 
that  survive. 

4.  The  Development  of  the  Oratorio  in  Italy 

While  solos  with  instrumental  accompaniments  had 
been  sung  by  the  people  for  centuries,  they  were  now  ac¬ 
cepted  by  the  Church  for  use  in  these  germinating 
oratorios.  In  1600  was  given  in  this  same  oratory, 
Cavalieri’s  “  The  Representation  of  the  Soul  and  the 
Body,”  an  allegory  which  was  more  pretentious  in 
structure  and  length.  Composers  were  busy  developing 
the  opera,  and  the  artistic  oratorio  is  not  heard  from 
until  1627  when  a  new  movement  began  with  “  The 
Lament  of  the  Virgin  Mary  ”  by  Michelagnolo,  resulting 
in  the  composition  of  a  flood  of  oratorios,  good,  bad  and 
indifferent,  chiefly  the  second.  The  best  was  “  Queri- 
monia  di  S.  Maria  Maddelena  ”  by  Domenico  Mazzuchi, 
which  again  was  rendered  in  the  Oratory  of  St.  Neri. 
Carissimi  (1604-1674)  wrote  a  long  series  of  oratorios 
far  superior  to  those  of  his  predecessors,  the  gem  among 


368  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


which  was  his  “  Jephtha.”  His  pupil,  Scarlatti,  was  also 
prominent  in  the  writing  of  oratorios,  as  was  Stradella, 
an  almost  mythical  figure  in  Italian  music.  Caldara, 
Colonna  and  Stradella  represent  the  peak  of  Italian 
oratorio  music. 

The  opera  and  oratorio  developed  side  by  side  in  Italy, 
affected  by  the  same  influences.  Indeed,  composers 
wrote  both,  very  much  as  Handel  did,  a  century  later. 

They  differed  chiefly  in  their  subjects  and  in  the  mode 
of  representation,  the  oratorio  having  lost  its  dramatic 
accessories.  It  is  not  a  pleasant  task  to  follow  the  decay 
of  the  oratorio  in  Italy.  The  end  came  with  Rossini’s 
complete  fusion  of  oratorio  and  opera  in  “  The  Israelites 
in  Egypt,”  which  appeared  as  an  oratorio  with  that  title 
and  as  an  opera  with  the  title  “  Zora.” 

5.  The  Oratorio  in  Germany 

In  Germany,  too,  the  oratorio  grew  out  of  the  miracle 
play.  But  while  in  Italy  the  rage  for  the  opera  had  sub¬ 
merged  the  religious  impulse  of  the  oratorio,  in  the  north 
the  spirit  of  the  Passion  music,  and  the  traditional  church 
melodies,  took  possession  of  the  miracle  play,  and  pro¬ 
duced  a  composition  of  a  profounder  and  more  religious 
character.  The  modern  oratorio  is  a  child  of  the 
Germans. 

(a)  Heinrich  Schuetz.  Whether  Heinrich  Schuetz 
(1585-1672)  was  the  “  father  of  German  music  ”  depends 
on  the  definition  of  the  term  music;  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  he  was  the  father  of  the  German  oratorio. 
He  links  up  with  Italian  church  music  by  having  spent 
three  years  of  study  under  Giovanni  Gabrielli  of  Venice. 
However,  Gabrielli  was  an  old  man  with  the  more  serious 
religious  ideals  of  half  a  century  before. 

Schuetz,  therefore,  had  the  benefit  of  the  Venetian 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHURCH  CANTATAS  369 


progressive  attitude  and  the  new  broadening  of  musical 
resources  in  the  monodic  style,  and  in  the  emphasis  of 
instrumentation,  without  the  lightness  and  secularity 
which  characterized  the  younger  men  of  southern  Italy. 
He  wrote  a  resurrection  oratorio  in  1623  which  was  fol¬ 
lowed  by  the  “  Seven  Words  on  the  Cross  ”  and  four 
Passion  oratorios.  His  work  was  reverent  and  expressive. 
He  still  had  a  strong  leaning  to  the  old  Plain  song 
melodies,  but  introduced  a  highly  expressive  recitative. 

The  oratorios  of  Schuetz  and  his  contemporaries  were 
really  little  more  than  cantatas,  although  they  had  larger 
instrumental  elements  than  the  Passion  music  of  their 
predecessors,  and  introduced  the  solo  work  so  prominent 
in  the  Italian  oratorios.  But  they  still  clung  to  the  Plain 
song  melodies  of  the  established  liturgy. 

( b )  Johann  Sebastiani.  In  1672  Johann  Sebastiani 
produced  a  Passion  oratorio  without  any  trace  of  the 
old  Plain  song  and  from  this  time  on  the  chorale  takes  its 
place  in  a  more  or  less  elaborate  setting.  Indeed  this 
had  been  done  before  the  time  of  Schuetz  to  some  extent. 

( c )  Reinhard  Keiser.  The  next  German  composer  of 
oratorios  of  any  eminence  was  Reinhard  Keiser  (1674- 
1739),  also  a  prominent  opera  writer.  His  Passion 
oratorios  were  extremely  expressive  and  excelled  in 
smooth  melody  and  dramatic  power.  Keiser  was  twelve 
years  older  than  Bach  and  Handel.  What  influence  he 
had  upon  them  cannot  be  accurately  estimated,  of  course. 
The  Bach  who  walked  fifty  miles  to  Luebeck,  to  hear  the 
playing  of  Buxtehude,  the  Danish  organist,  would  not 
have  overlooked  the  amazing  success  of  Keiser  at  Ham¬ 
burg  or  neglected  to  study  his  church  music.  Certain 
it  is  that  his  style,  which  had  been  rigid  and  mechanical, 
suddenly  took  on  a  smoothness  and  expressiveness  not 
found  in  his  earlier  work. 


370  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


( d )  Johann  Sebastian  Bach.  Johann  Sebastian  Bach 
wrote  four  oratorios:  a  “St.  John  Passion/’  a  “St. 
Matthew  Passion/’  a  “  St.  Luke  Passion  ”  and  a  “  Christ¬ 
mas  Oratorio.”  The  “  St.  Luke  Passion  ”  is  early  work 
and  is  not  highly  esteemed ;  indeed  Mendelssohn,  the  res- 
urrector  of  Bach’s  music  after  a  burial  of  eighty  years, 
declared  it  spurious.  The  other  Passion  oratorios  are 
recognized  as  Bach’s  most  splendid,  even  monumental, 
works  in  which  the  religious  music  of  Germany  for  a 
century  comes  to  a  climax. 

His  “  Christmas  Oratorio  ”  is  not  so  unified  a  com¬ 
position,  as  it  consists  of  six  cantatas,  one  for  each  of  the 
Christmas  holidays.  Yet,  as  being  but  parts  of  one 
general  theme,  in  the  same  general  spirit  and  style  there 
is  a  general  unity  that  justifies  their  combination  into  an 
oratorio. 

While  not  nominally  an  oratorio,  and  having  a  struc¬ 
ture  entirely  apart,  it  will  not  be  amiss  here  to  speak  of 
his  “  Mass  in  B  Minor  ”  which  has  been  recognized  by 
high  authorities  as  the  greatest  musical  composition  ever 
written.  It  is  frequently  sung  at  great  choral  festivals 
in  this  country. 

Bach  wrote  an  extraordinary  number  of  cantatas,  no 
less  than  two  hundred  and  ninety-five;  while  they  were 
not  as  extensive  as  his  oratorios,  of  course,  they  were  no 
less  remarkable  for  the  strength,  fertility,  and  expressive¬ 
ness  of  their  music.  But  they  are  not  epic  in  structure 
or  spirit,  confining  themselves  to  minor  aspects  of  the 
Life  of  Christ,  or  to  some  particular  phase  of  praise  or 
prayer.  They  varied  in  length  from  twenty  minutes  to 
an  hour.  They  were  based  upon  the  lesson  of  the  day 
for  which  they  were  written.  They  were  written  about 
the  “  Hauptlied,”  or  leading  chorale  of  the  day.  Parts 
of  this  often  appear  in  every  number  of  the  cantata. 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHURCH  CANTATAS  371 


Bach  is  the  outstanding  musical  figure  of  Germany. 
All  that  is  best  in  the  German  character,  in  German 
creative  power,  in  depth  of  German  emotionality,  in  de¬ 
voutness  of  German  spirit,  found  its  supreme  expression 
in  him.  His  architectonic  grasp,  his  fertility  of  inven¬ 
tion,  his  power  of  emotional  expression,  his  masterly 
and  exhaustive  contrapuntal  and  polyphonic  skill,  his 
knowledge  and  control  of  his  musical  resources,  his  un¬ 
failing  certainty  of  detail  and  graceful  touch,  all  find 
expression  in  these  oratorios. 

While  he  is  a  composer’s  composer,  it  requiring  the 
insight  of  a  trained  musician  to  comprehend  all  his  ex¬ 
cellencies,  he  also  appeals  strongly  to  the  thoughtful  and 
susceptible  layman  in  music.  He  is  bound  to  be  caviar 
to  the  hearer  whose  musical  horizon  is  bounded  by  the 
current  popular  ditty,  or  the  latest  gospel  song. 

( e )  Georg  Philip  Telemann.  Georg  Philip  Telemann 
(1681-1767)  was  a  popular  and  amazingly  productive 
writer  of  all  forms  of  music,  including  oratorios.  He 
was  a  contemporary  of  Bach  and  Handel.  A  highly 
skilled  contrapuntist,  Handel  said  of  him  that  he  could 
write  a  motet  in  eight  parts  as  easily  as  any  one  else  could 
write  a  letter.  He  wrote  forty-four  Passion  oratorios 
alone,  and  hosts  of  other  oratorios. 

He  wrote  innumerable  cantatas,  all  in  the  same  com¬ 
bination  of  conventional  counterpoint  and  Italian  opera 
airs.  While  the  dust  gathered  on  the  manuscript  of 
Bach,  Telemann’s  music  was  popular  throughout  Ger¬ 
many  and,  no  doubt,  was  temporarily  useful;  but  his  in¬ 
fluence  on  German  church  music  was  artistically  delete¬ 
rious  in  his  day  and  after.  His  most  popular  oratorios 
were  “  The  Last  Judgment  ”  and  “  Morning,  Noon  and 
Night.” 

(/)  Georg  Friedrich  Handel  (1685-1759)  wrote 


372  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


several  oratorios  before  he  left  Germany  which  must  be 
classed  with  German  oratorios.  He  wrote  “  The 
Triumph  of  Time,”  “  Resurrection  ”  and  a  Passion 
oratorio  to  the  text  of  Brockes,  ever  popular  with  com¬ 
posers.  These  works  had  little  in  common  with  his  later 
English  oratorios,  being  like  those  of  Telemann,  German 
in  counterpoint  and  Italian  in  style  of  melody. 

(g)  The  Italian  Influence  on  German  Oratorios.  The 
Italian  secular  influence,  already  felt  in  Bach’s  lifetime, 
became  much  stronger  in  the  next  generation.  Italian 
operas  were  very  popular  and  naturally  affected  the  style 
of  the  church  composers  as  well.  There  was  a  conflict 
in  the  minds  of  the  German  composers  between  the 
severer  inherited  German  traditions  and  native  tendencies 
on  the  one  hand  and  the  softer,  more  pleasing,  Italian 
manner  on  the  other. 

They  not  only  personally  felt  the  attraction  of  these 
musical  innovations,  but  had  their  worldly-minded  royal 
and  ducal  lords  and  frivolous  courts  to  please.  This 
struggle  between  the  indigenous  and  the  foreign  tend¬ 
encies  was  continued  in  every  department  of  music 
throughout  the  whole  eighteenth  century,  as  any  one  con¬ 
versant  with  the  trials  of  Mozart  and  Beethoven  in 
Vienna  will  remember,  and  was  not  ended  until  the 
Napoleonic  wars  roused  the  national  self-consciousness 
of  the  German  nations. 

( h )  Heinrich  Graun.  It  was  under  these  circum¬ 
stances  that  Karl  Heinrich  Graun  (1701-1759)  wrote  his 
oratorios.  His  early  life  was  devoted  to  the  writing  of 
operas  in  the  Italian  style  which  were  very  popular.  In 
his  last  years  he  wrote  sacred  music,  the  most  notable 
of  which  was  a  Te  Deum  and  his  oratorio,  “  Der  Tod 
Jesu  ”  (The  Death  of  Jesus).  The  latter  had  a  phenom¬ 
enal  popularity,  much  like  that  of  the  “  Messiah  ”  in 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHURCH  CANTATAS  373 


England.  It  was  a  work  of  great  excellence  and  can  be 
placed  by  the  side  of  Mozart’s  “  Requiem  ”  and  Haydn’s 
“  Creation.”  Graun  was  a  very  skillful  contrapuntist; 
his  harmony  was  strong  and  significant;  his  melodies 
were  expressive  and  emotional,  although  not  always  great. 
He  had  considerable  dramatic  power. 

(i)  Minor  Composers  of  Oratorios .  Johann  Adolph 
Hasse  (1699-1783)  wrote  an  oratorio  “  The  Pilgrims  at 
the  Sepulchre  ”  for  the  Electoral  chapel  at  Dresden  that 
had  considerable  vogue,  but  added  nothing  to  the  re¬ 
sources  displayed  by  his  predecessors. 

While  Carl  Philip  Emanuel  Bach’s  “  Passions-Cantate,” 
“  The  Resurrection  and  Ascension  ”  and  “  The  Iraelites 
in  the  Desert,”  have  great  expressiveness  and  some 
strength,  they  were,  like  all  the  music  of  his  contem¬ 
poraries,  affected  by  the  prevailing  rationalism  and 
irreligiousness  of  the  age,  and  had  little  devotional  value. 

Wolfgang  Amadeus  Mozart  (1756-1791)  took  no  in¬ 
terest  in  the  oratorio  as  such,  but  in  his  “  Requiem 
Mass  ”  showed  what  he  might  have  done  had  his  interest 
in  that  art  form  been  aroused. 

(/)  Franz  Joseph  Haydn.  Franz  Joseph  Haydn 
(1732-1809)  was  early  attracted  by  the  music  of  Carl 
Ph.  Em.  Bach,  and  his  musical  attitude  was  determined 
largely  by  that  admiration.  While  his  energies  were 
largely  devoted  to  the  development  of  the  string  quartet 
and  especially  of  the  symphony,  in  1775  he  wrote  the 
oratorio  “The  Return  of  Tobit.”  In  1785  appeared  his 
Passion  Oratorio,  “  The  Seven  Words  of  our  Saviour  on 
the  Cross.” 

It  was  not  until  he  had  nearly  reached  his  three  score 
and  ten,  in  1798,  that  his  opus  magnum,  “  The  Creation,” 
was  written.  The  text  had  been  suggested  during  his 
last  visit  in  England,  having  been  compiled  by  Lidley 


374  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


from  Milton’s  “  Paradise  Lost.”  “  Never  was  I  so  pious,” 
he  afterwards  said,  “  as  when  composing  the  ‘  Creation.’ 
I  knelt  down  and  prayed  God  to  strengthen  me  for  my 
work.”  The  work  made  an  extraordinary  impression 
upon  the  public  and  in  the  public  estimation  ever  since 
has  stood  second  only  to  Handel’s  “  Messiah.” 

In  1801  appeared  his  other  famous  oratorio,  “  The 
Seasons,”  based  on  Thomson’s  well-known  English  poem, 
having  the  same  title.  At  the  time  its  success  equalled 
that  of  “  The  Creation,”  but  the  latter  oratorio  is  now 
recognized  as  the  stronger  of  the  two. 

Haydn’s  music  is  not  as  great  as  that  of  either  Handel 
or  Bach,  but  it  has  a  grace  and  charm,  an  appealing  and 
contagious  spontaneity  one  finds  nowhere  else. 

( k )  Ludwig  von  Beethoven.  “  The  Mount  of  Olives  ” 
issued  in  1811  was  an  attempt  at  oratorio  by  Ludwig  von 
Beethoven  which  by  no  means  rose  to  the  height  of  ex¬ 
cellence  reached  by  his  sonatas,  his  symphonies  or  even 
his  string  quartets ;  like  his  opera  “  Fidelio,”  it  barely 
escaped  being  a  failure  and  fathered  by  a  less  famous 
composer  would  have  been  long  since  forgotten.  It 
should  be  said,  however,  that  it  contained  some  numbers 
of  conspicuous  excellence. 

(/)  Franz  Schubert.  Franz  Schubert  (1797-1828) 
essayed  to  write  oratorios,  completing  “  Miriam’s  Song 
of  Victory  ”  but  leaving  “  Lazarus  ”  unfinished.  Neither 
the  former,  which  is  little  more  than  a  cantata,  nor  the 
torso  of  the  latter,  has  secured  much  public  attention, 
despite  the  composer’s  prominence. 

(m)  Louis  Spohr.  While  Louis  Spohr  (1784-1859) 
has  by  no  means  the  standing  of  the  two  preceding  com¬ 
posers  mentioned,  he  was  much  more  successful  in  writ¬ 
ing  oratorios  than  they.  His  “  The  Last  Judgment  ” 
(1826)  has  had  a  perennial  popularity,  much  greater 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHURCH  CANTATAS  375 


than  that  of  his  other  oratorios,  “Calvary”  (1835)  and 
“The  Fall  of  Babylon”  (1842),  although  critics  think 
it  less  valuable  because  of  its  saccharine  chromaticism; 
but  that  fault  may  have  been  the  ground  of  its  greater 
popularity. 

These  oratorios  were  very  popular,  not  only  in 
Germany,  but  in  England  as  well.  The  reaction  of  that 
popularity,  however,  has  almost  obscured  his  fame  in 
these  later  days — undeservedly  so.  While  not  first-rate, 
he  was  a  high  second-rate  musical  genius. 

Spohr’s  technical  workmanship  was  very  admirable, 
although  he  cannot  be  accounted  a  great  master  of 
counterpoint ;  for  while  his  parts  moved  smoothly  enough, 
the  result  was  not  particularly  interesting  or  effective. 
He  had  a  very  strong  sense  of  symmetry,  but  it  presently 
became  mechanical.  He  had  some  of  Mozart’s  charm  of 
melody  which  might  have  been  expected  from  a  violin 
virtuoso. 

(n)  Minor  Oratorio  Writers.  After  Spohr  a  number 
of  German  composers  turned  to  oratorio  writing,  none 
of  whom  wrote  anything  that  the  world  cares  to  re¬ 
member — men  such  as  Schneider  (who  had  sixteen 
oratorios  to  his  credit),  Lindpainter,  and  Neukomm, 
whose  “  David  ”  was  much  sung  in  America. 

(0)  Felix  Mendelssohn  Bartholdi.  When  we  come  to 
Jacob  Ludwig  Felix  Mendelssohn  with  the  affix  Bar¬ 
tholdi  (1809-1847),  we  find  a  different  situation.  His 
“St.  Paul”  (1836),  “Hymn  of  Praise”  (1845),  and 
“  Elijah”  (1846),  made  an  immediate  success  which  not 
only  crossed  the  Channel,  but  even  the  ocean  to  America. 

The  reaction  is  on  from  this  extraordinary  popularity, 
and  the  “  higher  critics  ”  assail  the  music  as  bourgeois, 
middle  class,  as  saccharine  and  pleasing,  and  as  out  of 
date;  but  this  attitude  grows  out  of  the  current  emphasis 


376  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


of  the  discord  at  the  expense  of  the  concord,  which  finds 
its  supreme  expression  in  Richard  Strauss,  “  This  too 
will  pass.”  The  great  musical  public  still  delights  in 
these  great  masterpieces  of  Mendelssohn  and  they  are 
heard  quite  as  frequently  as  any  other  oratorios,  with  the 
exception  of  the  “  Messiah.” 

( p )  Recent  German  Oratorios.  Other  more  recent 
oratorios  are  “  Welt  Ende  ”  (The  End  of  the  World)  by 
Joseph  Joachim  Raff  (1822-1882),  “  Arminius  ”  and 
“Moses”  by  Max  Bruch  (1838-1907),  “Zion”  by 
Wilhelm  Niels  Gade  (1817-1890),  “  Christus  ”  and  “  St. 
Elizabeth”  by  Franz  Liszt  (1811-1886),  “  St.  Ludmilla” 
by  Antonin  K.  Dvorak  (1841-1904).  The  latter  is  best 
known  as  the  composer  of  a  popular  “  Humoreske  ”  and 
of  the  “  New  World  Symphony.” 

6.  The  Oratorio  in  England 

(a)  George  Frederick  Handel.  English  oratorio 
sprang  into  being  full-orbed,  like  Minerva  from  the  head 
of  Jupiter.  There  had  been  nothing  in  English  music 
that  could  under  any  definition  be  construed  as  an  ora¬ 
torio  before  the  immigration  of  a  German  composer, 
George  Frederick  Handel  (1685-1759)  into  England  in 
1710.  For  twenty-three  years  he  was  an  operatic  com¬ 
poser  in  the  Italian  style,  writing  only  one  oratorio, 
“  Esther,”  in  1720,  which  however  did  not  have  a  public 
performance  until  1732.  Its  success  led  him  to  write 
“Deborah  and  Athalia  ”  in  1735;  but  it  was  not  until 
1738,  when  he  was  fifty-three  years  old,  that  he  began  to 
give  himself  wholly  to  the  writing  of  oratorios. 

His  “  Saul  ”  was  an  instant  success,  yet  few  in  our 
day  have  heard  more  than  the  “  Dead  March.”  “  Israel 
in  Egypt,”  now  esteemed  as  second  only  to  “  The 


OEATOEIOS  AND  CHUECH  CANTATAS  377 


Messiah,”  was  ill  received  by  his  public,  despite  its  tre¬ 
mendous  choruses.  In  1741,  at  the  request  of  the  Duke 
of  Devonshire,  then  Lord  Lieutenant  of  Ireland,  he  wrote 
and  produced  in  Dublin  his  greatest  masterpiece,  “  The 
Messiah  ”  It  is  said  to  have  been  written  in  twenty-four 
days;  but  it  is  certain  that  he  laid  under  contribution 
numbers  he  had  previously  composed  and  even  numbers 
by  other  composers. 

In  quick  succession  followed  “Samson”  (1743), 
“Joseph”  (1744),  “Belshazzar”  (17/14),  “The  Occa¬ 
sional  Oratorio”  (1746),  “Judas  Maccabseus  ”  (1747), 
“Joshua”  (1748),  “Solomon”  (1749),  “Susanna” 
(1749),  “Theodora”  (1750),  “Jephtha”  (1752).  For 
the  remainder  of  his  life  he  was  almost  entirely  blind, 
but  still  presided  at  the  organ  during  the  presentation  of 
his  oratorios  and  even  played  organ  concertos. 

Most  of  Handel’s  oratorios,  like  his  operas,  are  dead. 
“  Judas  Maccabaeus  ”  and  “  Joshua  ”  are  practically  never 
rendered,  but  occasionally  a  chorus  or  an  aria  from  them 
is  heard.  “  Israel  in  Egypt  ”  has  more  vitality,  but  is 
rarely  sung.  “  The  Messiah  ”  is  very  much  alive,  being 
probably  sung  oftener  than  all  other  oratorios  together. 
Thousands  of  singers  in  the  English  speaking  world  can 
sing  their  parts  without  notes.  The  “  Hallelujah 
Chorus  ”  made  such  an  impression  on  its  first  rendition 
that  when  that  majestic  passage  began,  “  For  the  Lord 
God  Omnipotent  reigneth,”  the  audience,  including  the 
King,  who  was  present,  rose  to  its  feet  and  remained 
standing  to  the  end  of  the  chorus.  Thus  originated  the 
present  custom  of  standing  while  it  is  sung.  “  Unto  us 
a  Son  is  born  ”  is  another  number  of  extraordinary  im¬ 
pressiveness.  The  chief  solos  of  the  oratorio  are  “  I 
Know  That  My  Redeemer  Liveth,”  “  He  was  Despised,” 
and  “  Why  do  the  Heathen  Rage  ?  ”  Whether  musical 


378  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


or  not,  every  minister  should  be  familiar  with  the  general 
features  of  this  great  oratorio.1 

( b )  The  English  Oratorio  after  Handel.  English 
oratorio  music  after  Handel  does  not  call  for  extended 
consideration.  Writers  who  excelled  in  liturgical  music 
like  Boyce  and  Arne  attempted  work  in  this  form,  but 
with  very  indifferent  success.  Plenty  of  oratorios  were 
produced  in  the  century  that  followed  Handel,  but  it  was 
largely  academic, — “  gemachtes  Zeug  ”  (made  stuff)  — 
among  which  “Palestine”  by  William  Crotch  (i775“ 
1847),  “The  Woman  of  Samaria”  by  William  Stern- 
dale  Bennett  (1816-1875),  “Jerusalem”  by  Henry  Hugo 
Pierson  (1815-1873),  “  Eli  ”  and  “  Naaman  ”  by  Michael 
Costa  (1808-1884),  are  perhaps  the  most  notable. 

During  the  last  half  century  there  has  been  somewhat 
a  revival  of  interest  in  the  oratorio.  Sir  Charles  Hubert 
Hastings  Parry  (1848-1918)  has  to  his  credit  “Judith” 
(1888),  “Job”  (1892),  and  “King  Saul”  (1894),  which 
have  added  to  his  fame.  Sir  Edward  Elgar  (1857-  ) 

has  made  perhaps  the  strongest  impression  of  any  con¬ 
temporary  composer  of  oratorios  with  his  “  Dream  of 
Gerontius,”  “  The  Apostles,”  and  “  Lux  Christi,” 
although  the  general  public  has  not  responded  to  them 
very  enthusiastically.  Sir  Arthur  Seymour  Sullivan 
(1842-1900)  struck  a  more  popular  chord  with  his 
“  Prodigal  Son,”  “  The  Light  of  the  World  ”  and  the 
“  Golden  Legend.”  Equally  kindly  has  been  the  response 

1  Grandeur  and  simplicity,  the  majestic  scale  on  which  his 
compositions  are  conceived,  the  clear  definiteness  of  his  ideas  and 
the  directness  of  the  means  employed  in  carrying  them  out,  the 
pathetic  feeling  expressed  with  a  grave  seriousness  equally  re¬ 
moved  from  the  sensuous  and  the  abstract, — these  are  the  dis¬ 
tinguishing  qualities  of  Handel’s  music  (Julian  Marshall  in 
Grove’s  “Dictionary  of  Music”). 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHURCH  CANTATAS  379 


of  the  choral  and  church  public  on  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic  to  Alfred  R.  Gaul’s  “  The  Holy  City,”  “  Ruth,” 
“  The  Ten  Virgins  ”  and  “  The  Prince  of  Peace.”  A 
little  less  popular,  perhaps,  but  more  scholarly  are  the 
oratorios,  “  The  Crucifixion,”  “  Gideon  ”  and  “  The 
Daughter  of  Jairus,”  by  Sir  John  Stainer,  “  The  Cru¬ 
saders  ”  by  Henry  Hiles  and  “  Judith  ”  by  C.  H.  H.  Parry 
(1840-1901). 

(c)  The  Church  Cantata  in  England.  During  the  last 
half  century  English  composers  have  done  creditable  work 
in  church  service  cantatas.  Among  the  more  useful  of 
these  are  “  Olivet  to  Calvary  ”  by  J.  H.  Maunder, 
“  Harvest  Cantata  ”  by  G.  Garrett,  “  Song  of  Thanks¬ 
giving  ”  by  F.  H.  Cowen,  and  “  The  Passion  ”  by  J. 
Varley  Roberts,  having  had  wide  use  in  America  as  well 
as  in  England.  The  Nonconformist  church  music 
writers  of  cantatas  have  been  quite  prolific  in  the  writing 
of  cantatas,  but  they  have  studied  efficiency  and  practi¬ 
cability  rather  than  artistry,  having  in  mind  actual  use  by 
church  choirs  in  church  services.  Arthur  Berridge  and 
Chas.  Darnton  have  done  excellent  work  in  these  lines. 

7.  The  Oratorio  in  America 

In  America  there  has  been  a  great  deal  of  interest  in 
European  oratorios,  particularly,  and  somewhat  naturally, 
in  the  English,  and  they  have  been  widely  sung ;  but  our 
composers  have  not  felt  the  urge  to  write  in  that  form. 
Dudley  Buck  (1839-1912)  wrote  “The  Golden  Legend,” 
and  the  “  Light  of  Asia.”  His  cantatas,  “  The  Coming 
of  the  King”  (Christmas),  “The  Story  of  the  Cross” 
(Good  Friday),  “Christ,  the  Victor”  (Easter),  “The 
Triumph  of  David,”  and  “  Midnight  Service  ”  (New 
Year’s  Eve),  his  latest  published  works,  are  so  scholarly 
and  yet  practicable  and  pleasing  that  they  promise  to  be 


380  THE  HISTORY  OF  CHURCH  MUSIC 


useful  for  many  generations  to  come.  John  Knowles 
Paine  (1839-1906)  produced  “St.  Peter”  in  1873.  A 
more  brilliant  work  was  “  Hora  Novissima  ”  by  Horatio 
William  Parker  (1863-1919),  which  had  a  wise  use  in 
this  country  and  abroad.  His  other  oratorios,  “  Morven 
and  the  Grail  ”  and  “  The  Legend  of  St.  Christopher  ” 
have  evoked  less  enthusiasm.  “  Noel  ”  by  Geo.  W.  Chad¬ 
wick  is  another  noteworthy  American  oratorio. 


8.  The  French  Oratorio 

French  oratorio  began  with  Marc  Antoine  Charpentier 
( 1634-1702),  whose  “David  and  Jonathan”  and  “The 
Sacrifice  of  Abraham”  are  now  forgotten.  “Joseph” 
by  Henri  Etienne  Mehul  (1763-1817)  is  a  more  note¬ 
worthy  work. 

The  most  striking  oratorio  produced  in  France  up  to 
that  time  was  “  The  Infancy  of  Christ  ”  which  Hector 
Berlioz  (1803-1869)  produced  in  1854.  It  is  full  of 
charming  music,  but  has  not  won  its  way  in  this  country. 

“  Les  Beatitudes”  by  Franck,  Caesar  (1822-1890),  is 
recognized  as  the  best  oratorio  (although  he  does  not 
call  it  by  that  name)  which  has  been  written  in  France. 
His  “  Ruth,”  “  Rebecca  ”  and  “  Redemption  ”  are  the 
best  of  a  series  of  short  oratorios,  or  “  Scenes  Bibliques.” 
“  The  Deluge  ”  and  “  Noel,”  a  Christmas  oratorio,  by 
Charles  Camille  Saint  Saens  (1835-1920),  are  noteworthy 
examples  of  French  pseudo-classicism  mingled  with  ap¬ 
plications  of  modernity. 

Charles  Francois  Gounod  (1818-1893),  more  widely 
known  as  the  composer  of  the  ever  popular  opera, 
“  Faust,”  wrote  two  oratorios,  “  Redemption  ”  and 
“  Mors  et  Vita,”  the  former  of  which  has  been  widely 
used,  not  only  in  England,  but  in  America.  The  chorus, 


ORATORIOS  AND  CHURCH  CANTATAS  381 


“  Unfold,  Ye  Portals  ”  has  been  very  popular  as  an 
Easter  and  festival  number  for  chorus  choirs. 

9.  Ti-ie  Passing  of  the  Oratorio 

The  oratorio  as  a  living  art  form  may  be  said  to  have 
passed.  It  is  no  longer  being  sung  spontaneously  by  our 
great  choirs.  It  is  too  long,  too  strenuous  in  its  demands 
for  our  busy  age.  The  present  type  of  religion  is  too 
practical,  too  unmystical  to  respond  to  its  majesty  and 
profundity.  The  cantata  to  some  extent  has  taken  its 
place.  Its  shorter  length  and  less  massive  style  make  it 
more  practicable  and  more  appealing  to  singers  and  hear¬ 
ers  alike. 

10.  The  Church  Cantata  in  America 

It  will  not  be  amiss  to  hurriedly  survey  the  development 
and  present  status  of  the  cantata  in  America.  Originally 
the  field  of  cantata  was  artistic  entertainment  and  not 
religious  edification.  Bradbury’s  cantatas,  “  Esther  ”  and 
“  Daniel,”  and  Root’s  “  Belshazzar’s  Feast,”  “  Daniel,” 
“  The  Pilgrim  Fathers  ”  and  “  The  Haymakers  ”  had  no 
religious  significance.  They  were  intended  for  Singing 
Convention  concerts  despite  the  Biblical  character  of  some 
of  them.  Later  the  service  use  of  English  cantatas  be¬ 
came  more  general,  and  a  comparatively  easy  grade  of 
American  cantatas  began  to  appear.  The  leading  com¬ 
posers  in  this  churchly  type  of  cantatas  have  been  P.  A. 
Schnecker,  “  The  Fatherhood  of  God,”  E.  L.  Ashford 
(“Cross  and  Crown”),  Geo.  B.  Nevin  (“Adoration”), 
Ira  B.  Wilson  (“The  First  Easter”),  J.  S.  Fearis 
(“  Star  of  the  East  ”),  H.  W.  Porter  (“  Resurrection  ”), 
Finley  Lyon  (“The  Great  Light”),  E.  S.  Lorenz 
(“Easter  Evangel”),  E.  K.  Heyser  (“Easter  Alle¬ 
luia”),  Carrie  B.  Adams  (“Easter  Praise”),  and  H. 


382  THE  HISTOEY  OF  CHUECH  MUSIC 


W.  Petrie  (“Light  Eternal  ”).  In  freshness,  strength, 
and  impressiveness  they  average  much  higher  than  the 
Nonconformist  cantatas  of  England,  and  some  of  them 
closely  approach,  if  they  do  not  equal,  the  easier  Estab¬ 
lished  Church  cantatas  in  strength  and  effectiveness. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  How  do  the  oratorio  and  the  cantata  differ? 

2.  What  was  the  origin  of  each? 

3.  How  was  the  miracle  play  transformed? 

4.  Give  the  details  of  development  of  the  oratorio  in  Italy. 

5.  In  whose  work  did  its  decadence  in  Italy  culminate? 

6.  State  the  value  of  German  oratorio  writers  before  Bach. 

7.  How  many  oratorios  did  Bach  write? 

8.  How  many  cantatas? 

9.  What  was  the  scope  of  Bach’s  cantatas? 

10.  In  what  particulars  did  Bach  excel? 

11.  What  was  the  effect  of  Italian  musical  ideals? 

12.  What  was  the  character  of  the  oratorios  of  Graun? 

13.  What  minor  composers  followed  Graun? 

14.  What  important  oratorios  were  written  by  Haydn? 

15.  What  success  had  Beethoven  with  oratorio? 

16.  Give  the  title  of  Spohr’s  most  important  oratorio. 

17.  Who  was  the  next  important  oratorio  composer  and  what 
were  his  chief  works? 

18.  Who  are  the  more  recent  German  oratorio  writers  and 
their  most  important  works? 

19.  Who  introduced  the  oratorio  into  England  and  what  are 
his  most  important  works? 

20.  How  many  of  Handel’s  oratorios  are  still  sung? 

21.  Give  the  most  important  numbers  of  the  “  Messiah.” 

22.  Give  the  names  of  recent  oratorio  and  cantata  writers  and 
their  most  famous  works. 

23.  What  American  composers  have  attempted  this  form  of 
composition? 

24.  Who  were  the  prominent  oratorio  composers  in  France? 

25.  Why  is  the  oratorio  passing  as  an  art  form? 

26.  Detail  the  development  of  the  cantata  in  America. 

27.  What  American  composers  are  prominent  as  writers  of 
cantatas  for  church  use? 


IV 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


XXIX 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  This  is  a  very  important  chapter. 
Secure  a  competent  organist  or  organ  builder  to  take  the  class, 
either  as  a  whole  or  in  detachments,  through  a  good  sized  pipe 
organ  and  point  out  and  demonstrate  its  several  parts.  This 
should  be  done  after  the  chapter  has  been  studied  and  recited. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Clarke,  “Outline  of  the  Structure  of 
the  Pipe  Organ,”  Ditson,  Boston ;  Wicks,  “  Organ  Building  for 
Amateurs,”  Ward,  Lock  &  Co.,  London ;  Archer,  “  The  Organ,” 
Novello,  London;  Nicholson,  “Organ  Manual,”  Ditson,  Boston; 
Dickson,  “  Practical  Organ  Building,”  Crosby  Lockwood  and  Co., 
London. 

The  pipe  organ  has  been  so  conspicuous  a  feature  in 
the  present  day  church  service  that  the  manager  of  that 
service  should  have  a  clear  idea  of  its  mechanism,  as 
well  as  of  its  possibilities  of  usefulness  in  his  order  of 
service.  It  will  be  useful,  therefore,  to  devote  a  chapter 
to  its  general  description.  In  the  limited  space  available 
only  the  more  outstanding  parts  can  have  consideration. 

i.  The  Pipe  Organ  an  Exceedingly  Complicated 

Instrument 

The  pipe  organ  is  not  so  much  a  single  instrument  as 
an  assembly  of  instruments.  It  has  gathered  up  into 
itself  the  striking  qualities  of  all  other  instruments,  wind, 
string,  and  even  percussion.  Every  register  or  stop, 
except  those  that  only  partially  extend  through  its  range, 
is  a  complete  instrument  in  itself,  having  a  marked  in¬ 
dividuality  of  its  own,  just  as  a  violin,  or  the  clarinet  in 
the  great  orchestra,  but  with  a  wider  range  and  larger 
possibilities.  A  pipe  organ  of  twenty-five  speaking 
registers  is  made  up  of  twenty-five  individual  organs, 
the  combinations  of  which  are  almost  infinite.  The 

385 


386 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


average  organ  has  rather  more  than  less  than  1,500  pipes, 
each  of  which  has  a  pitch  or  a  voicing  peculiar  to  itself, 
and  must  be  under  control  to  speak  only  when  it  is 
wanted.  There  is  an  indefinite  number  of  details  in  an 
organ  and  every  one  is  important  to  its  success. 

2.  The  Key  Desk  or  Console 

The  central  control  of  the  pipe  organ,  with  its  keys, 
tablets,  pistons,  knobs,  pedals,  and  swell  and  composition 
pedals,  is  called  the  Key  Desk  when  it  is  built  into  the 
instrument,  and  Console,  when  it  is  separate.  Whether 
permanent  or  movable,  it  is  the  brains  of  the  instrument, 
which  initiates  and  controls  all  its  action.  It  calls  for 
careful  study. 

(a)  Its  Keyboards  or  Manuals.  There  are  a  few  small 
pipe  organs  that  have  but  one  bank  of  keys,  or  manual ; 
generally  there  are  from  two  to  four,  or  even  five. 
Where  there  are  two  manuals,  the  lower  is  called  the 
Great  and  the  upper  the  Swell.  In  larger  organs  a  third 
manual,  called  the  Choir,  is  added  below,  and  in  even 
larger  instruments  a  fourth  called  the  Solo  is  placed 
below,  the  Swell  and  Great  changing  places. 

At  the  two  sides  of  these  manuals  are  sets  of  Knobs,1 
which  when  drawn  out  render  active  the  sets  of  pipes 
or  registers  connected  with  them.  When  they  are 
pushed  in,  these  pipes  no  longer  respond  to  the  keys  of 
the  manual.  They  are  arranged  according  to  the  manual 
that  controls  them;  the  Great  and  Mechanical  registers 
are  usually  arranged  on  the  right,  and  the  Swell  and 
Pedals  on  the  left.  The  various  departments  have  knobs 
of  different  woods  to  catch  the  eye,  Great  of  ebony, 

1  In  many  recent  organs  the  register  knobs  have  been  displaced 
by  horizontal  keys  or  tablets,  something  like  the  perpendicular 
tablets  used  for  couplers. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  387 


Swell  of  rose  wood,  Pedals  of  tulip  wood,  and  Mechan¬ 
ical  registers,  such  as  Tremolo  and  couplers,  of  box  wood. 
The  knobs  often  have  oblique  faces  to  aid  the  eye  to 
catch  the  names  engraved  upon  them. 

Above  the  Swell  manual  in  recent  organs  is  a  set  of 
tilting  tablets  controlling  the  coupling  of  the  several 
manuals  and  the  pedal  clavier  with  each  other,  so  that  in 
playing  on  one  manual  the  stops  drawn  on  another  with 
which  it  is  coupled  respond  as  well.  There  are  also 
pistons  that  bring  on  certain  combinations  of  stops  with¬ 
out  drawing  out  the  knobs  at  the  side.  Some  of  these 
combinations  are  permanent,  some  adjustable. 

( b )  The  Pedal  Clavier.  The  pedal  clavier  consists  of 
the  great  wooden  keys  which  the  feet  play,  the  long  ones 
corresponding  to  the  white  keys,  and  the  short  high  ones 
to  the  short  black  keys  of  the  manuals.  Formerly  they 
were  straight  and  parallel,  but  in  modern  organs  they  are 
concave  and  radiate  from  a  hypothetical  center. 

A  little  above  the  pedal  clavier  is  the  Swell  pedal  which 
opens  and  closes  the  shutters  of  the  enclosure  surround¬ 
ing  the  pipes  controlled  by  the  Swell  manual  and  so 
varies  the  force  and  gives  expression.  There  is  another 
pedal  called  the  Grand  Organ  Crescendo  which  brings  on 
gradually  the  whole  power  of  the  organ.  In  older  organs 
there  are  Composition  pedals  which  change  the  combina¬ 
tions  of  stops  in  Great  and  Swell.  One  pedal  may  bring 
in  all  the  registers  of  the  Great  Organ  and  another  push 
them  all  in  but  a  soft  voiced  solo  stop,  this  without  the 
player  lifting  his  hands  from  the  keys  of  the  manual. 
In  recent  organs  the  push  buttons  above  the  upper  manual 
have  largely  taken  the  place  of  these  Composition  pedals. 

3.  The  Great  Organ 

Having  familiarized  himself  with  the  Key  Desk  or 


388 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


Console,  and  all  its  intricate  component  parts,  the  student 
will  wish  to  know  what  lies  behind  them. 

The  Great  manual  keys  control  the  pipes  of  the  Great 
Organ  made  up  of  strong  organ  tone  and  flute  tone 
registers,  supplying  the  foundation  work,  the  great  body 
tone  of  the  instrument.  Looking  at  the  names  on  the 
knobs  of  the  Great  Organ  registers,  one  finds  Open 
Diapason,  Dulciana,  Melodia,  Octave  or  Principal,  Super- 
Octave,  Mixture,  with  a  few  loud  solo  stops  like  Doppel 
Flote,  Gamba,  or  Trumpet.  The  loudness  of  the  Great 
Organ  can  be  controlled  only  by  drawing  or  pushing  in 
stops. 


4.  The  Swell  Organ 

The  Swell  manual  keys  control  the  pipes  of  the  Swell 
Organ,  which  is  enclosed  in  a  compartment,  sometimes 
having  a  double  wall,  with  the  front  arranged  with  shut¬ 
ters  or  folds  which,  being  opened  and  closed,  cause  an 
increase  or  decrease  of  the  force  of  the  tones.  These 
shutters  are  controlled  by  the  Swell  pedal  already  re¬ 
ferred  to.  The  edges  of  the  shutters  are  felted  to  re¬ 
duce  the  sound  when  they  are  closed.  The  Swell  pedal 
mechanism  is  so  arranged  that  the  shutters  will  remain 
open  at  any  point. 

In  a  two  manual  instrument  the  Swell  Organ  contains 
the  softer  organ  tone,  and  flute  and  string  tone  stops,  and 
the  varied  solo  stops.  One  finds  on  its  register  knobs 
the  names,  Bourdon,  Salicional,  Hfoline,  Stopped  Di¬ 
apason,  Viola  Diapason,  Flute  Harmonique,  Flageolet, 
Clarinet,  Oboe,  Bassoon,  Vox  Humana  and  Vox  Angelica. 

This  is  the  expressive  department  of  the  organ  both 
in  its  voicing  and  in  its  variations  of  force.  While  the 
Grand  Organ  has  strength,  dignity,  majesty,  the  Swell 
Organ  has  meditativeness,  tenderness,  and  emotion. 


DESCBIPTION  OP  THE  PIPE  OKGAN  389 


5.  The  Choir  Organ 

The  Choir  Organ  is  enclosed  in  a  swell  box  of  its  own. 
It  contains  soft  voiced  and  solo  stops  and  in  general  is 
gentler  in  tone  than  the  Great,  some  of  whose  stops  it 
duplicates  with  a  smaller  scale,  that  is,  with  pipes  of  a 
smaller  diameter.  It  is  not  a  miscellaneous  collection  of 
solo  stops,  but  a  well  balanced,  symmetrical  organ.  Dul- 
ciana,  Melodia,  and  Stopped  Diapason  are  transferred 
from  the  Great  Organ,  usually  with  smaller  scales. 
Other  stops  are  Geigen  Principal,  Lieblich  Gedackt, 
Flute  d’ Amour,  Piccolo  and  Clarinet.  In  general  it  is 
a  Great  Organ  reduced  in  scale  and  given  expressive¬ 
ness  for  choir  use. 

6.  The  Solo  Organ 

In  very  large  organs  there  is  a  Solo  Organ  which  con¬ 
tains  chiefly  solo  stops  of  unusual  quality  of  tone,  such 
as  Keraulophon,  Dolcan,  Philomela,  Prestant,  Wald- 
Floete,  Tuba  Mirabilis.  It  has  a  swell  of  its  own. 

7.  The  Pedal  Organ 

The  Pedal  Organ  provides  the  fundamental  tones  of 
the  harmonic  structure.  It  usually  has  thirty  notes.  In 
small  organs  the  Bourdon,  with  the  help  of  couplers  with 
the  lower  two  octaves  of  the  Great,  is  considered  ample. 
The  16  ft.  Open  Diapason  is  the  fundamental  stop  for  a 
moderate  sized  organ,  with  Bourdon,  and  Violoncello 
as  variants.  Only  in  the  larger  organs  does  the  32  ft. 
Open  Diapason  find  a  place,  because  of  its  wall-shaking 
power.  With  it  goes  the  16  ft.  Open  Diapason,  Principal, 
Dulciana,  all  16  ft.  stops,  and  Violoncello,  Gamba,  Floete 
and  Trombone,  8  ft.  stops.  For  a  softer  bass  for  music 
on  the  Swell  Organ,  the  Pedal  can  couple  with  an  ap¬ 
propriate  stop  on  the  Great, 


390 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


8.  The  Transmission 

Having  thus  analyzed  the  key  desk  and  what  it  repre¬ 
sents,  the  student  passes  to  the  methods  and  mechanism 
that  connect  it  with  the  pipes  that  give  a  voice  to  the 
organ.  There  are  three  forms  of  transmission  or  actions 
in  use. 

(a)  The  Tracker  Action.  In  the  Tracker  Action  the 
movement  of  the  keys  is  transmitted  to  the  valves  of  the 
pipes  by  purely  mechanical  means.  As  the  key  is  pressed 
down,  it  affects  a  set  of  levers  and  trackers,  which  finally 
affect  the  valve  of  the  pipe.  Each  of  them  must  act  in 
straight  directions,  but  by  means  of  squares  or  elbows, 
motion  can  be  transmitted  in  any  direction. 

For  small  organs  with  few  registers  and  only  three 
couplers,  the  Tracker  Action  is  quite  satisfactory,  but 
with  a  large  organ  with  numerous  couplers  it  becomes 
manual  labour  to  play  the  full  organ.  The  levers  and 
especially  the  trackers  are  quite  susceptible  to  damp,  and 
in  wet  weather  the  tracker  action  is  apt  to  be  rather  hard 
and  stiff. 

( b )  The  Pneumatic  Action .  The  Pneumatic  Action  is 
based  on  the  elasticity  of  the  air.  It  has  two  forms, 
(i)  In  the  one,  air  from  the  organ  bellows,  acting 
through  a  small  bellows  attached  to  each  key,  operates 
the  Tracker  Action,  the  pressure  of  the  air  relieving  the 
labour  of  pressing  down  the  key.  (2)  The  Tubular- 
Pneumatic  Action  dispenses  with  the  mechanism  of  the 
levers  and  trackers  entirely,  their  place  being  taken  by 
a  small  tube  which  passes  from  the  key  to  the  valve. 
Pressing  down  the  key  opens  a  valve  which  permits  the 
air  from  a  heavily  weighted  pneumatic  bellows  to  pass 
through  the  tube  to  a  separate  disc-valve  which  is  con¬ 
nected  with  the  valves  in  the  wind-chest. 

No  matter  how  large  the  organ,  or  how  intricately  it  is 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  391 


coupled,  the  touch  of  the  tubular-pneumatic  organ  is  very 
easy.  With  this  action  the  Console  may  be  located  any¬ 
where  within  150  feet,  but  the  weight  of  the  tubes  be¬ 
comes  a  serious  consideration.  However,  the  action  be¬ 
comes  slower  in  proportion  to  the  distance  of  the  Console 
from  the  body  of  the  organ. 

( c )  The  Electro-Pneumatic  Action.  The  Electro- 
Pneumatic  Action  differs  from  the  Tubular  Pneumatic 
only  in  that,  instead  of  the  small  tube  passing  from  the 
key  to  the  pneumatic  valve  action,  there  is  an  electric  wire 
through  which  the  current,  opened  by  pressing  down  the 
key,  lifts  the  armature  of  a  magnet  which  is  connected 
with  the  pneumatic  valve  action. 

( d )  Drawstop  Action.  The  registers  are  brought  into 
action  by  slides  in  the  wind-chest  which  have  holes  for 
each  pipe,  which  holes,  when  the  stop  is  drawn,  coincide 
with  the  holes  in  the  channels.  This  slide  is  moved  on  the 
same  principle  as  the  valve,  according  to  the  action  used, 
by  leverage  in  the  Tracker  Action,  by  pneumatic  pressure 
in  the  Pneumatic  Action,  by  electromagnets  in  the  Elec¬ 
tro-Pneumatic  Action.  This  is  equally  true  of  the 
Mechanical  registers,  the  Couplers,  the  Combination  pis¬ 
tons,  the  Tremolo  Action  and  the  like. 

9.  The  Pipes 

Pipes  are  divided  into  two  classes :  Flue  pipes  in  which 
the  vibration  is  originated  in  the  air,  and  Reed  pipes  in 
which  the  vibrations  originate  in  a  tongue  or  reed,  but 
are  strengthened  and  enriched  by  a  column  of  air  enclosed 
in  a  pipe. 

(a)  The  Flue  Pipe. 

(1)  The  Material  of  the  Pipe.  Pipes  are  made  of 
metal  alloys  of  tin  and  lead,  or  of  zinc,  or  of  wood.  The 
greater  the  proportion  of  tin  the  brighter  the  tone.  If 


392 


THE  PIPE  OKGAN 


Metal  Pipes 


Wood  Pipes 


A.  The  body  of  the  pipe. 

b.  The  foot  for  conveying  the  air. 

c.  The  mouth  of  the  pipe. 

d.  The  lower  lip. 

e.  The  upper  lip. 


/.  The  flue,  or  air  passage. 

g.  The  language,  dividing  the  body  of 

the  pipe  from  the  foot. 

h.  The  toe,  or  entrance  of  the  wind. 

i.  The  ears  for  steadying  the  wind. 

j.  The  tuner. 


Parts  of  the  Wood  Pipes 

K.  The  block.  n.  Exterior  bevel. 

l.  The  cap.  o.  Inverted  mouth. 

m.  The  tuner. 

the  proportion  of  tin  is  forty  per  cent,  or  over,  spots  are 
produced  in  the  crystallization,  from  which  the  quality  of 
the  metal  may  be  inferred.  When  of  metal,  they  are 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  393 


cylindrical,  when  of  wood  they  may  be  rectangular  or 
triangular,  as  well  as  cylindrical.  The  wooden  pipes  con¬ 
trolled  by  the  keys  of  the  manuals  in  the  best  organs  are 
made  of  spruce  pine  with  hardwood  front.  The  heavier 
pedal  pipes  are  made  of  spruce  pine,  poplar  or  cypress. 
The  pipes  are  tongued  and  grooved  and  glued  together  at 
the  joints.  The  tone  is  improved  by  a  generous  inside 
coating  of  glue  sizing,  filling  the  pores  of  the  wood. 

(2)  The  Formation  of  the  Tone.  The  flue  pipe  is  of 
the  same  type  as  the  boy’s  willow  or  whistlewood  whistle. 
The  air,  blown  in  from  the  lower  end,  impinges  on  the 
upper  lip  of  the  opening  on  the  side  and  creates  an  eddy 
that  sets  the  column  of  air  above  it  into  vibration. 

(3)  The  Pitch.  The  pitch  depends  on  the  length  of 
the  column  of  air  above  the  opening.  The  standard  of 
pitch  for  the  manuals  is  the  length  of  the  pipe  sounding 
the  lowest  C  on  the  keyboard,  which  is  eight  feet.  Hence 
all  stops  based  on  this  standard  are  called  eight-foot  stops. 

A  pipe  only  half  as  long  as  that  of  the  lowest  C  would 
sound  an  octave  higher,  and  hence  a  stop  sounding  an 
octave  higher  than  the  standard  is  called  a  four-foot  stop. 
A  stop  sounding  still  an  octave  higher  is  called  a  two-foot 
stop. 

But  if  the  end  of  the  pipe  is  closed  (“  gedeckt,”  as  the 
Germans  say)  or  “  stopped,”  the  vibrations  are  thrown 
back  and  descend  so  that  the  four-foot  pipe  becomes  the 
equivalent  of  an  eight-foot  pipe  with  a  corresponding 
pitch. 

Yet  the  pitch  of  a  pipe  is  not  absolutely  determined  by 
its  length;  the  wind  pressure  and  the  temperature  are 
factors  to  be  reckoned  with.  , 

(4)  The  Quality  of  Tone.  The  quality  of  the  tone  of 
a  pipe  depends  on  the  overtones,  which  are  affected  by  a 
large  number  of  different  factors,  among  which  are  the 


394  THE  PIPE  OKGAN 


Shapes  of  Metal  Pipes 

1.  Open  cylindrical,  whose  body  has  the  same  diameter  throughout. 

2.  Conical,  the  top  of  whose  body  has  a  smaller  diameter  than  the  mouth. 

3.  Conical  with  bell  at  the  top. 

4.  Conical  inverted,  the  top  of  whose  body  has  a  larger  diameter  than  the  mouth. 

5.  Stopped  cylindrical,  which  ha3  a  metal  covering  at  the  top. 

6.  Half-stopped  cylindrical  has  an  open  tube  or  chimney  inserted  in  cap  or  covering. 


material  of  the  pipe,  its  diameter,  its  shape,  the  shape  of 
the  lips  of  the  side  orifice,  and  the  shape  of  the  upper 
end.  By  the  proper  manipulation  of  these,  voicers  not 
only  produce  diapason  organ  tone,  flute  tone  and  string 
tone,  but  numberless  variations  of  timbre  and  colour  that 
mark  the  extraordinary  variety  and  resourcefulness  of 
the  organ. 

(5)  The  Shape  of  the  Pipe. 

(a)  Metal  flue  pipes  take  the  following  shapes: 

Open  cylindrical ,  of  the  same  diameter  throughout. 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  395 


Conical,  the  top  smaller  than  the  mouth  in  diameter. 
Conical  with  bell,  the  top  flaring  into  a  bell. 

Conical  inverted ,  the  top  larger  in  diameter  than  the 
mouth. 

Stopped  cylindrical,  with  a  metal  covering  at  the  top. 
Half  stopped  cylindrical,  with  open  tube  or  chimney  in 
the  covering. 

( b )  Wood  pipes  occur  in  the  following  shapes: 
Rectangular, 

Three  sided, 

Pyramidal, 

Inverted  Pyramidal, 

Turned  Cylindrical, 

Stopped  Rectangular, 

Half  stopped  Rectangidar. 

(6)  The  Scale  of  the  Pipe.  ( a )  The  scale  of  the  pipe 
is  its  diameter  as  proportioned  to  its  length.  A  large 
diameter  has  a  fuller  tone  than  a  smaller  one.  String-tone 
stops  have  small  diameters,  Open  Diapasons  the  largest. 
The  scale  of  the  pipe  diminishes  with  the  rise  of  the  pitch, 
but  not  as  fast  as  the  length ;  the  diameter  decreases  one- 
half  with  every  seventeenth  note,  while  the  length  de¬ 
creases  one  half  with  every  thirteenth  note. 

( b )  The  Reed  Pipe. 

(1)  The  Formation  of  the  Tone.  In  the  reed  pipe  the 
vibration  is  produced  by  a  tongue  or  reed,  which  is  rein¬ 
forced  by  the  vibration  of  the  column  of  air  in  the  pipe 
above  it,  which  is  of  a  length  corresponding  to  the  pitch 
of  the  reed. 

(2)  Two  Kinds  of  Reeds.  Reeds  are  of  two  kinds: 
the  free  reed,  in  which  the  reed  vibrates  freely  in  its 
opening  without  striking  the  eschallot,  or  frame,  and  the 
striking  reed  which  rests  on  its  eschallot  and  vibrates  on 
its  flat  surface.  The  free  reed  is  little  used. 


396 


THE  PIPE  ORGAH 


Shapes  of  Wood  Pipes 


Reed  Pipe 


1.  Open  Rectangular. 

2.  Open  Triangular. 

3.  Pyramidal. 

4.  Inverted  Pyramidal. 


5.  Turned  Cylindrical. 

6.  Stopped  Rectangular. 

7.  Half-stopped  Rectangular. 


Parts  of  Reed  Pipe 

а.  Body  of  Metal.  d.  Reed  of  Brass. 

б.  Block  of  Metal.  e.  Tuning  Spring  of  Brass  or  Steel, 

c.  Eschallot  of  Brass.  f.  Boot  or  Socket  of  Metal. 


(3)  The  Tuning  of  the  Reeds .  The  tuning  of  a  reed 
is  done  by  a  tuning  spring,  a  wire  which  shortens  or 
lengthens  the  vibrating  portion  of  the  reed  and  raises  or 
lowers  its  pitch.  The  pipe  must  be  tuned  accordingly. 

(4)  The  Shape  of  the  Reed  Pipes.  Reed  pipes  are 
made  of  metal  and  are  shaped  very  much  as  metal  flue 
pipes.  The  lowest  toned  reed  pipes  are  made  of  wood, 
four  sided,  pyramidal.  Free  reed  pipes  are  usually  made 
of  wood. 


10.  The  Quality  of  the  Tone 
There  are  four  distinct  qualities  of  tone  in  the  pipe 


DESCRIPTION  OP  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  397 


organ:  (a)  Organ  or  Diapason  tone;  ( b )  Flute  tone; 
(c)  String  tone,  and  ( d)  Reed  tone. 

(a)  The  Organ  or  Diapason  Tone.  The  Organ  or 
Diapason  Tone  is  particularly  round  and  full,  and  does 
not  approach  the  quality  of  any  other  instrument.  It  is 
represented  by  the  Open  Diapason,  Principal,  Dulciana, 
Fifteenth  or  Superoctave,  and  in  the  Pedal  Organ  by 
thirty-two  foot  Open  Diapason. 

( b )  The  Flute  Tone.  This  quality  of  tone  suggests 
that  of  its  namesake  in  the  orchestra.  The  mouth  of  the 
pipe,  i.  e.,  the  side  opening,  is  sometimes  cut  high.  It  is 
represented  by  Bourdon,  Stopped  Diapason,  Melodia, 
Clarabella,  Doppel  Floete  and  a  host  of  other  stops.  The 
flute  quality  does  not  persist  in  the  low  bases,  but  the 
same  proportional  scale  is  used. 

(c)  The  String  Tone.  The  String  Tone  approaches 
more  or  less  the  quality  of  the  stringed  instruments  of 
the  orchestra.  It  has  a  somewhat  incisive  effect.  The 
scale  of  these  stops  is  usually  small.  Represented  by 
Gamba,  ^Eoline,  Salicional,  Violoncello,  Viol  d’Amour, 
and  in  the  Pedal  Organ  by  Violone  and  Gamba  Major. 

( d )  The  Reed  T one.  The  reed  tone  is  somewhat  sharp 
and  incisive,  due  to  its  metalic  origin,  but  is  quite  subject 
to  the  voicer’s  art,  producing  great  variations  of  quality, 
from  the  blatant  trumpet  to  the  dainty  Vox  Humana. 
The  more  common  reed  stops  are  the  Oboe,  Clarinet, 
Trumpet,  Vox  Humana  and  in  the  Pedal  organ  Bom- 
barde  and  Contra  Fagotto. 

ii.  Mixture,  or  Compound  Stops 

Where  the  full  organ  is  called  for,  mere  octaves  are  a 
little  thin,  and  strengthening  of  the  overtones  is  needed. 
This  can  be  done  by  Mixture  Stops  representing  those 
overtones,  such  as  the  Twelfth,  Fifteenth,  Seventeenth, 


398 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


Nineteenth,  etc. — all  of  which  are  so  connected  as  to  be 
drawn  with  a  single  knob.  If  too  strong,  they  add  shrill¬ 
ness  to  the  tone,  particularly  so  if  the  upper  harmonics 
are  present. 


12.  The  Bellows 

Need  it  be  said  that  the  supply  of  air  is  an  important 
factor  in  getting  proper  results  from  an  organ.  As  we 
shall  see  in  our  next  chapter,  it  was  a  difficult  problem 
in  the  development  of  the  organ,  which  has  been  fully 
solved  only  in  recent  years. 

(a)  The  Parts  of  the  Bellows.  The  bellows  consist  of 
the  feeders,  collapsible  structures  with  folds,  that  draw  in 
the  air,  a  wind-box  that  gives  rigidity  to  the  structure,  and 
collapsible  bellows  at  the  top  which,  properly  weighted, 
give  a  steady  pressure  to  the  air  in  the  wind-box.  The 
power  is  applied  to  the  feeders.  As  the  air  is  forced  from 
the  feeders  into  the  wind-box  or  reservoir,  it  forces  open 
valves  in  its  bottom  which  close  instantly  when  the 
pressure  from  the  feeders  is  less  than  the  pressure  regu¬ 
lated  by  the  weights  on  the  collapsible  top. 

( b )  Organ  Blowers.  In  recent  years  the  feeders  have 
been  replaced  by  organ  blowers  on  the  principle  of  centrif¬ 
ugal  pumps,  by  means  of  which  more  air  at  a  uniform 
pressure  can  be  supplied.  When  these  are  used  the 
reservoir  or  wind-chest  may  be  very  considerably  re¬ 
duced  in  size. 

(c)  The  Distribution  of  the  Wind.  From  the  wind- 
chest  wind-trunks  distribute  the  air  to  the  channels  which 
carry  it  to  the  foot  of  the  pipes.  The  entrance  to  the 
channels  is  controlled  by  pallets,  or  valves,  which  in  turn 
are  governed  by  pneumatic  devices  connected  with  the 
keys  by  one  of  the  several  actions. 

There  is  a  channel  for  every  key  on  the  several  claviers. 


Sectional  view  of  a  portion  of  the  side  of  a  Wind-Chest 


Sectional  view  of  a  portion  of  the  end  of  a  Wind-Chest 

(399) 


400 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


The  pipes  of  that  particular  pitch  of  all  stops  in  the 
organ  are  connected  with  that  individual  channel.  Draw¬ 
ing  a  stop  connects  every  pipe  belonging  to  it  with  its 
respective  channel.  If  middle  C  is  pressed  down  the 
valve  between  its  channel  and  the  wind-trunk  is  opened 
and  all  the  middle  C  pipes  whose  stops  have  been  drawn 
will  sound.  If  this  valve  leading  to  the  channel  fails  to 
close  because  of  dirt  or  some  small  impediment,  the  pipe 
will  continue  to  receive  air  through  the  channel  and  hence 
continue  to  sound.  This  unfortunate  accident  is  called 
“  ciphering.” 

There  are  details  in  this  control  of  the  valves  that  are 
very  interesting  mechanically,  but  lack  of  space  forbids 
entering  upon  them. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Explain  the  complicated  character  of  the  pipe  organ. 

2.  What  is  the  difference  between  the  Key  Desk  and  the 
Console? 

3.  Describe  the  manuals  of  the  pipe  organ,  number,  and 
arrangement. 

4.  Give  the  arrangement  of  drawstops  and  other  controls. 

5.  Describe  the  Pedal  clavier. 

6.  What  other  Pedal  accessories  are  placed  above  the  clavier? 

7.  Explain  the  character  of  the  Great  Organ. 

8.  How  is  force  regulated  in  the  Swell  Organ? 

9.  What  is  the  character  of  the  stops  used  in  it? 

10.  Name  some  of  its  stops  in  its  several  classes. 

11.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  Choir  Organ  to  the  Great? 

12.  What  organs  have  a  Solo  Organ  and  what  class  of  stops 
are  placed  in  it? 

13.  Describe  the  Pedal  Organ  and  its  stops. 

14.  How  many  kinds  of  actions  are  used  in  pipe  organs? 

15.  How  does  the  drawstop  operate? 

16.  How  many  classes  of  pipes  are  there?  Characterize  each, 

1 7.  Of  what  materials  are  they  made? 

18.  How  is  the  tone  formed  in  flue  pipes? 


DESCRIPTION  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  401 


19.  On  what  does  the  pitch  of  a  pipe  depend? 

20.  What  is  the  basis  of  the  differing  tone  quality  of  the 
various  stops? 

21.  What  are  the  shapes  of  metal  flue  pipes?  Of  wooden  flue 
pipes? 

22.  What  is  the  scale  of  a  pipe  and  how  does  it  affect  the 
tone? 

23.  How  is  the  tone  produced  in  the  reed  pipe? 

24.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  reed  to  the  length  of  its  pipe? 

25.  How  many  kinds  of  reeds  are  used  and  how  do  they 
operate? 

26.  State  how  the  qualities  of  tone  are  produced  in  the  organ 
and  their  respective  characteristics, 

27.  What  are  Mixtures?  Give  the  principle  underlying  them. 

28.  Describe  the  bellows. 

29.  What  parts  are  replaced  by  modern  blowers  ? 

30.  How  is  the  wind  distributed  to  the  individual  pipes? 

31.  What  is  “ciphering,”  and  how  is  it  caused? 


XXX 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN' 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  This  may  be  assigned  for  reading 
only. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Williams,  “  Story  of  the  Organ,” 
Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Grove,  “Dictionary  of  Music  and 
Musicians,”  Art.  “  Organ,”  Presser,  Philadelphia. 

The  minister  should  not  be  ignorant  of  the  history  of 
the  most  perfect  musical  instrument  man  has  devised.  It 
is  really  due  to  his  general  culture  to  have  a  knowledge  of 
its  development. 

i.  The  Bible  Organ 

The  use  of  the  word  “  organ  ”  in  the  Authorized  Ver¬ 
sion  is  somewhat  misleading  as  to  the  antiquity  of  the 
instrument.  Jubal’s  “  organ  ”  was  simply  a  pipe,  or  small 
set  of  pipes  at  most.  Blowing  into  a  hollow  reed  had 
made  a  pleasing  noise.  Soon  it  was  discovered  that  the 
lengths  of  the  reed  affected  the  character  of  the  noise, 
i.  e.,  its  pitch.  Jubal,  as  a  fertile  experimenter,  conceived 
the  idea  of  combining  a  number  of  reeds  of  differing 
lengths  and  so  the  germ  of  all  wind  instruments,  includ¬ 
ing  the  modern  pipe  organ,  was  conceived.  Jubal’s  organ, 
— Pipes  of  Pan  or  syrinx — had  from  eight  to  fourteen 
pipes  and  was  with  various  modifications  continued 
through  the  ages  that  followed.  It  may  be  accepted  as 
the  ougab,  the  “  organ  ”  of  the  English  Bible. 

Space  fails  us,  or  it  would  be  interesting  to  mark  the 
development  of  the  various  wind  instruments  known  to 
ancient  nations.  It  is  sufficient  to  note  that  the  develop- 

402 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  403 


ment  was  chiefly  in  the  line  of  instruments  that  could  be 
blown  with  the  human  breath. 

2.  The  Development  of  the  Pipe 
Probably  the  first  syrinx  was  closed  at  one  end  by  the 
knot  in  the  reed.  It  was  therefore  a  “  stopped  pipe.”  By 


A  Panpipe,  or  Syrinx 

some  accident,  or  by  groping  experiment,  it  was  found 
that  if  there  was  a  slight  slit  in  the  knot  and  a  hole  in 
the  other  side  of  the  knob,  blowing  through  the  knob 
also  produced  a  pleasing  sound,  again  modified  by  the 


404 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


length  of  the  pipe,  but  an  octave  higher  than  the  pipe  of 
similar  length  with  the  knot  still  closed.  This  “  open 
pipe,”  similar  to  a  boy’s  willow  whistle,  gave  another 
great  class  of  pipes  in  the  modern  organ. 

3.  The  Reed  Pipe 

The  next  great  step  in  the  development  of  the  musical 
tube  was  that  the  vibrations  could  be  originated  by  a  slight 
tongue  which  was  set  to  vibrating  by  the  breath  playing 
upon  it.  From  this  were  evolved  the  clarinet,  the  oboe, 
the  bassoon,  the  bagpipe,  and  finally  the  “  Reed  Pipes  ” 
of  the  organ.  Thus  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the  organ 
were  very  early  established.  It  was  simply  a  question  of 
the  necessary  mechanism  to  exploit  their  possibilities  in 
a  large  way. 

4.  Organs  in  the  Pre-Christian  Era 

The  Talmud1  describes  an  instrument  having  a  wind- 
chest  containing  ten  holes  with  each  of  which  ten  pipes 
were  connected.  These  one  hundred  sounds  were  con¬ 
trolled  by  a  Keyboard.  This  instrument,  called  magrepha, 
is  said  to  have  been  used  in  the  Temple. 

While  we  have  no  other  authority  to  substantiate  this 
account,  it  is  not  at  all  improbable,  for  in  the  third  and 
second  centuries  before  Christ,  the  Hydraulic  organ  was 
developed,  anticipating  many  important  features  of  the 
modern  organ.  It  had  nineteen  pipes  providing  six  tropes 
or  scales.  It  was  quite  popular  at  gladiatorial  shows  and 
musical  contests,  Nero  himself  being  a  player  on  it.  It 
fell  under  the  ban  of  the  Christian  Church,  as  did  all  other 
instruments,  because  of  its  pagan  associations.  The 
smaller  instruments  being  personal  as  well  as  portable, 
survived,  but  the  hydraulic  organ  went  out  of  general 

1Mishna,  Tr.  Erachim,  Chapter  11,  Sect.  3,  5,  6. 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  405 


use,  and  by  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  had  entirely 
disappeared. 


5.  Early  Church  Organs 

The  art  of  building  organs  was  nearly  lost,  though 
traces  of  it  appear  occasionally.  An  obelisk  erected  by 
Theodosius  before  393  a.  d.  shows  an  organ  whose  bel¬ 


lows  are  operated  by  two  youths  standing  on  a  pair  of 
bellows.  There  was  no  keyboard.  The  speaking  of  the 
pipes  in  all  the  cases  of  this  age  known  to  us  was  con¬ 
trolled  by  the  perforated  slides  managed  by  hand. 

When  the  organ  began  to  be  used  in  church  service  is 
not  definitely  known.  Jerome  in  420  mentions  an  organ 


406 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


in  Jerusalem  with  twelve  bronze  pipes  and  fifteen  smith’s 
bellows,  which  could  be  heard  from  the  Mount  of  Olives, 
a  mile  away.  We  may  conjecture  that  it  was  placed  in  a 
church.  In  450  it  was  in  common  use  in  the  churches  of 
Spain,  according  to  julianus,  a  Spanish  bishop.  There  is 
mention  of  an  organ  in  a  nunnery  at  Grado  in  580. 

In  666  Pope  Vitalian  at  Rome  introduced  the  instru¬ 
ment  to  aid  the  singing  of  the  congregation.  The  organ 
was  used  in  England  and  the  art  of  making  them  was 
known  in  the  eighth  century.  It  was  introduced  into 
France  about  the  same  time.  Pepin  (714-768)  the  father 
of  Charlemagne  secured  one  from  the  Byzantine  Em¬ 
peror,  Constantine  Copronymus  the  Sixth,  as  there  was 
none  in  either  Germany  or  France.  It  had  pipes  of  lead. 
Charlemagne  had  a  copy  of  it  made  in  812  for  the 
cathedral  at  Aix-la-Chapelle.  The  French  and  German 


organ  builders  soon  became  very  expert  and  had  the 
reputation  of  making  the  finest  organs  in  Christendom. 

Small  organs  for  personal  and  private  use  seem  to  have 
existed  in  the  pre-Christian  age  and  down  through  the 
centuries.  They  became  quite  common  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  They  were  called  “  Portative  ”  organs,  as  they 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  407 


could  be  carried  about  by  the  player.  Some  were  small 
enough  to  hang  from  the  neck  of  the  performer,  who 
worked  the  bellows  with  one  hand  and  played  on  the 
keys  with  the  other.  As  the  pipes  were  short  and  of 
small  scale,  necessarily  their  pitch  was  very  high. 

A  larger,  but  still  movable,  organ  called  a  “  Positive  ” 
was  widely  used  in  the  Middle  Ages.  It  is  well  repre¬ 
sented  by  the  part  of  the  shrine  painted  by  Hubert  van 
Eyck  found  in  the  “  Old  Museum  ”  in  Berlin.  It  was 
somewhat  larger  than  a  cabinet  organ  and  its  pipes  were 
displayed. 

These  “  positive  ”  organs  were  sometimes  placed  in 
different  parts  of  a  large  church  or  cathedral,  usually 
raised  on  little  platforms  high  up  on  the  side  walls  or  even 
on  pillars.  They  were  called  “  swallows’  nests.”  They 
were  loud  and  screaming,  and  helped  to  control  the  sing¬ 
ing  of  the  congregation. 

These  small  organs  had  keys  even  smaller  than  our 
own,  and  their  bellows  were  quite  practicable.  They  were 
used  in  chapels  and  small  churches,  and  even  privately  in 
the  castles  of  the  nobility. 

In  the  ninth  century  organs  had  become  numerous  in 
England,  the  builders  there  constructing  the  pipes  of 
copper.2 

2  It  will  be  interesting  to  note  a  description  of  an  organ  built 
for  Winchester  Cathedral  in  the  first  half  of  the  tenth  century, 
as  given  in  a  Latin  poem  by  a  monk  of  the  name  of  Wulstan. 
“  Such  organs  as  you  have  built  are  seen  nowhere,  fabricated  on 
a  double  ground.  Twice  six  bellows  above  are  ranged  in  a  row, 
and  fourteen  lie  below.  These  by  alternate  blasts  supply  an  im¬ 
mense  quantity  of  wind  and  are  worked  by  seventy  strong  men, 
labouring  with  their  arms  covered  with  perspiration,  each  inciting 
his  companions  to  drive  the  wind  up  with  all  his  strength,  that 
the  full-bosomed  box  may  speak  with  its  four  hundred  pipes 
which  the  hand  of  the  organist  governs.  Some  when  closed  he 


408 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


6.  The  Introduction  of  a  Keyboard 

With  these  tongues  or  slides,  it  took  three  men  to  play 
this  Winchester  organ.  The  keyboard  of  the  hydraulus 
had  passed  into  oblivion,  but  near  the  close  of  the  eleventh 
century  the  germinal  suggestion  of  it  reappeared  in  the 
form  of  levers,  hinge  keys,  which  substituted  a  blow  for 
a  pull.  These  keys  were  three  to  five  inches  wide,  or  even 
more,  an  inch  and  a  half  thick,  from  eighteen  inches  to 
a  yard  long,  with  a  fall  of  from  ten  to  twelve  inches.  As 
springs  had  to  be  provided  strong  enough  to  force  these 
keys  back  into  position  and  close  the  valve  by  pushing 
the  slide,  one  can  understand  that  no  weakling  could  be 
chosen  organist. 

These  organs  had  sixteen  notes,  from  A  to  A,  including 
a  lyrical  “Bb  ” 


In  the  eleventh  century  we  find  references  to  the  use  of 


opens,  others  when  open  he  closes,  as  the  individual  nature  of  the 
varied  sound  requires.  Two  brethren  (religious)  of  concordant 
spirit  sit  at  the  instrument  and  each  manages  his  own  alphabet. 
There  are,  moreover,  hidden  holes  in  the  forty  tongues  and  each 
has  ten  (pipes)  in  their  due  order.  Some  are  conducted  hither 
and  others  thither,  each  preserving  the  proper  point  (or  situa¬ 
tion)  for  its  own  note.  They  strike  the  seven  differences  of 
joyous  sounds,  adding  the  music  of  the  lyric  semitone  (Bb). 
Like  thunder  the  iron  tones  batter  the  ear,  so  that  it  may 
receive  no  sound  but  that  alone.  To  such  an  amount  does  it 
reverberate,  echoing  in  every  direction,  that  every  one  stops  with 
his  hand  his  gaping  ears,  being  in  no  wise  able  to  draw  near  and 
bear  the  sound,  which  so  many  combinations  produce.  The  music 
is  heard  throughout  the  town  and  the  flying  fame  thereof  has 
gone  out  over  the  whole  country.” 


THE  HISTORY  OP  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  409 


a  keyboard,  in  connection  with  a  new  organ  at  Magde¬ 
burg,  Germany. 

7.  The  Problem  of  the  Bellows 

With  the  size  of  the  pipes  used,  and  the  degree  of  force 
thought  necessary  for  church  purposes,  the  bellows  were 
a  great  problem.  In  the  first  place,  the  quantity  of  wind 
was  important;  the  rude  pipes  would  not  function  under 
low  pressure.  In  the  second  place  a  steady  pressure 
was  needful  to  sustain  an  unvarying  pitch. 

The  Hydraulus  tried  to  solve  the  problem  by  means  of 
water  seeking  its  level  in  tanks,  but  that  device  had  passed 
into  the  limbo  of  the  forgotten.  Their  only  recourse  was 
to  multiply  bellows  of  the  size  ordinarily  used  by  the 
blacksmiths.  These  were  not  manipulated  by  levers,  as 
in  the  more  recent  past,  but  by  treading  them  up  and 
down,  each  man  serving  two  bellows,  raising  one  and 
depressing  the  other  alternately  by  means  of  an  iron  shoe. 
We  have  seen  that  the  Winchester  organ  required  seventy 
men.  The  organ  at  Halberstadt  had  twenty  bellows  and 
that  at  Magdeburg  twenty-four.  Within  the  last  half 
century  there  were  still  organs  surviving  in  Germany  that 
required  organ  treaders  (Orgel-treter).  The  old  organ 
in  the  Nicolai  Kirche  in  Leipzig  in  1890  still  required  the 
laborious  efforts  of  four  men. 

8.  Increasing  the  Loudness  of  the  Organ 

In  the  twelfth  century  the  number  of  keys  was  in¬ 
creased,  and,  as  if  the  din  were  not  sufficiently  great,  two 
or  three  more  pipes  were  added  to  each  key,  sounding  the 
fifth  and  octave  to  the  unison.  It  must  be  remembered 
that,  when  a  key  was  struck,  all  the  pipes  connected  with 
it  sounded,  and  there  was  as  yet  no  method  of  silencing 


410 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


any  of  them.  There  could  be  no  expression;  it  was  one 
unending  bellow. 

One  can  therefore  sympathize  with  the  Latin  and 
Greek  clergy  of  the  thirteenth  century  who  deemed  the 


Treading  the  Bellows 

use  of  the  organ  in  divine  services  profane  and  scandal¬ 
ous.  The  disuse  of  the  congregation  singing,  the  habit 
of  the  choirs  of  singing  the  service  and  the  motet  a 
capella, — i.  e.,  without  instrumental  accompaniment — 
must  have  made  the  strident  bellowing  of  the  organ  seem 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  411 


out  of  place.  The  Greek  Church  still  continues  the  ban 
imposed  by  the  early  Church  against  instruments.  But 
in  the  Northern  Church  the  organ  continued  its  develop¬ 
ment.  To  Bb  was  added  F#,  C#,  Eb,  and  G#  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  completing  the  chromatic  scale.  The 
clavier,  or  keyboard,  was  enlarged  to  two  octaves  and  a 
fifth,  or  thirty-one  keys.  This  necessitated  a  recon¬ 
struction  of  the  mechanism  connecting  the  key  and  the 
valve,  which  was  a  great  improvement. 

9.  Control  of  the  Power  of  the  Organ 

Up  to  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  the  ques¬ 
tion  had  been  one  of  power.  The  only  progress  that  had 
been  made  was  in  adding  pipe  to  pipe  until  ten  or  more 
pipes  answered  to  a  single  key.  In  such  an  organ  there 
could  be  no  variation,  no  expression,  no  adaptation  to 
varying  needs.  In  1361  there  was  built  by  a  priest, 
Nicholas  Faber  by  name  (a  name  to  be  held  in  high 
honour  by  all  who  love  the  organ),  an  instrument  that 
broke  new  ground.  It  introduced  three  manuals  instead 
of  one.  The  one  manual  controlled  the  main  body  of 
the  organ  and  the  pipes  were  placed  in  the  back  and 
hence  called  “  Hintersatz.,,  The  second  manual  con¬ 
trolled  the  Open  Diapason  pipes  which  were  placed  in 
front;  the  third,  the  lower  pipes  of  the  Bass  Diapason. 
The  player  could  pound  out  the  melody  on  the  upper 
manual  with  one  hand  and  a  discant  on  the  middle,  or 
merely  accompany  the  singing  by  using  the  open  Di¬ 
apason  of  the  middle  manual  with  one  hand  as  a  discant 
to  the  voices,  and  a  bass  with  the  other.  The  keyboards 
were  also  improved,  the  keys  of  one  manual  being  let¬ 
tered,  and  the  chromatic  notes,  Bb,  C#,  F#,  and  G#,  being 
raised  above  the  other  keys  and  set  back  of  them,  thus 
practically  anticipating  our  present  keyboard.  The  di- 


412 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


atonic  keys  were  probably  pressed  down  by  the  wrist  end 
of  the  hand,  and  the  chromatic  keys  by  the  middle  fingers. 

While  the  contrast  between  the  upper  and  middle 
manuals  was  rather  violent  and  did  not  yet  allow  for 
much  expression,  it  opened  out  new  possibilities. 

io.  The  Invention  of  Stops 

The  next  step  was  to  get  variation  of  sound  on  a  single 
manual.  This  was  secured  in  the  fifteenth  century  by 
putting  in  a  transverse  slide  by  means  of  which  a  single 
set  of  pipes  was  shut  off  or  connected  with  the  air  chest. 

Two  degrees  of  power  having  thus  been  assured  from 
a  single  manual,  the  idea  of  securing  more  was  not  far 
to  seek.  In  the  fifteenth  century,  Timotheus,  a  German 
artificer,  in  rebuilding  a  monastery  organ  for  the  Bishop 
of  Wuerzburg,  separated  the  pipes  of  the  Hintersatz  or 
main  organ  into  single  sets  of  pipes,  called  registers. 
These  registers  (now  called  “  stops  ”)  were  given  names: 
Principal  8  ft.  (now  Open  Diapason),  Octave  4  ft.  (now 
Principal),  Quint  2-2/3  ft.  (now  Twelfth),  Superoctave 
2  ft.  (now  Fifteenth). 

The  mechanism  by  which  this  result  was  secured  need 
not  be  described  here.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  while  it  was 
ingenious  and  produced  the  desired  result,  it  was  very 
complicated  and  easily  put  out  of  order.  It  was  later 
(circa  1525)  replaced  by  the  present  much  simplified 
system. 


11.  Securing  Varied  Quality  of  Tone 

Up  to  the  fifteenth  century  only  pipes  of  a  single  quality 
of  tone  had  been  used.  Hence  while  variation  of  quan¬ 
tity  of  tone  had  now  been  secured  by  the  individual  reg¬ 
isters,  there  was  still  a  monotony  of  quality.  Given  a 
number  of  sets  of  pipes  that  could  be  made  to  speak  inde- 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  413 


pendently,  the  desire  to  vary  the  quality  was  sure  to  arise. 
The  pipes  had  all  been  open,  metal,  cylindrical,  and  of  full 
proportionate  scale,  or  size.  Experiments  were  made  by 
variations  in  all  these  particulars.  The  open  pipe  was 
stopped  at  the  upper  end,  reducing  its  pitch  by  one  octave, 
and  softening  the  tone.  Thus  originated  a  whole  family 
of  stops:  Stopped  Diapason,  Bourdon,  Gedackt  (gedeckt- 
covered)  and  many  others. 

Pipes  of  small  diameter  were  used  and  so  treated  as  to 
produce  what  is  known  as  a  string  tone,  giving  character 
to  another  family  of  stops,  such  as  Gamba,  Viola, 
Violone,  etc. 

The  shape  of  the  pipes  was  changed,  either  flaring  at 
the  top  or  tapering,  and  the  mouth  at  the  side  raised, 
producing  the  horns  and  flutes  such  as  Gemshorn,  Har¬ 
monic  Flute,  Hohl  Floete. 

The  use  of  reeds  was  also  introduced  in  this  century, 
thus  completing  the  four  families  of  tones — Organ,  Flute, 
String,  and  Reed.  The  Trumpet,  Trombone,  and  Vox 
Humana  were  discovered  and  used. 

12.  The  Improvement  of  the  Keyboard 

The  keyboard  had  been  a  clumsy,  monstrous  device  up 
to  this  time,  calling  for  great  strength  and  almost  violent 
exercise.  The  keys  being  three  or  four  inches  wide,  no 
chords  could  be  played  with  one  hand.  The  width  of 
the  keys  was  gradually  reduced  so  that  before  the  close 
of  the  fifteenth  century  an  octave  was  only  about  one 
note  wider  than  on  the  present  keyboard. 

The  diatonic  and  chromatic  keys  were  combined  in  one 
keyboard,  very  much  as  they  are  now.  At  first  the 
chromatic  keys  were  overlaid  with  ivory,  and  the  diatonic 
with  ebony.  Our  present  black  and  white  keys  were 
established  at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century. 


414 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


13.  The  Invention  of  the  Pedals 

Another  great  improvement  in  the  fifteenth  century  was 
the  invention  of  the  pedals.  Their  compass  was  only  one 
octave  and  did  not  include  the  chromatic  tones.  They 
were  used  only  with  long  sustained  notes.  The  actual 
originator  of  the  pedals  is  not  certainly  known.  Traxdorf 
of  Mainz  and  Berndorf  of  Venice  are  mentioned,  but 
that  there  were  pedals  in  use  prior  to  their  time  is  fairly 
certain.  They  probably  only  added  important  improve¬ 
ments.  In  1418  we  find  independent  pedal  pipes,  lengths 
of  sixteen  feet  and  thirty-two  feet  coming  into  use. 
About  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  slide 
sound  board  now  in  use  took  the  place  of  Timotheus’ 
spring  sound  board. 

14.  The  Luebeck  Organ 

In  1518  a  typical  organ,  containing  all  the  improve¬ 
ments  that  had  been  made  up  to  that  time  was  opened  at 
the  St.  Mary’s  Church,  Luebeck.  It  had  manuals  from 
D  to  A  above  the  treble  staff  and  a  separate  pedal  down 
to  C.  It  had  thirty-two  foot  and  sixteen  foot  pipes  of 
English  tin.  Nearly  two  hundred  years  later  (1705)  J. 
Sebastian  Bach  walked  fifty  miles  to  hear  it  played  by 
Buxtehude,  the  great  Danish  organist.  Two  years  earlier 
Handel  applied  for  the  position  of  organist  of  one  of  the 
other  churches  of  Luebeck;  but  when  he  heard  that  the 
successful  candidate  was  expected  to  marry  the  daughter 
of  the  late  organist,  he  declined  to  compete !  Both 
Handel  and  Bach  certainly  heard  Buxtehude  play  on  this 
organ,  and,  it  may  be,  played  upon  it. 

15.  Recent  Improvements 

We  find,  therefore,  that  by  the  opening  of  the  sixteenth 


THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  PIPE  ORGAN  415 


century  the  main  development  of  the  pipe  organ  had 
taken  place.  Succeeding  centuries  brought  additional 
stops  and  keyboards.  The  expressional  value  of  the 
organ,  already  greatly  developed,  was  made  greater  and 
more  delicate  by  the  introduction  of  the  swell  by  Jordan 
(1712)  in  the  church  of  St.  Magnus  in  London.  In 
1726  Paris  and  Byfield  began  the  system  of  couplers  in  an 
organ  in  Bristol.  The  Swell  idea  was  applied  to  the 
whole  organ  in  1790  by  Samuel  Green  at  St.  George’s 
Chapel,  Windsor.  This  idea  is  still  used  by  some 
American  builders. 

The  bellows  had  been  the  weak  point  in  the  organ  from 
the  beginning,  the  Hydraulus  of  ancient  times  being  a 
recognition  of  this  difficulty.  Pitch  and  power  of  tone 
both  varied  with  the  wind  pressure.  In  1762  a  clock- 
maker  by  the  name  of  Cummings  made  a  fairly  successful 
approach  to  the  solution  of  the  problem  by  a  combination 
of  a  feeder  and  a  reservoir.  This  has  been  greatly  im¬ 
proved  in  the  meantime.  In  later  years  rotary  and 
kinetic  organ  blowers  have  come  into  use. 

In  1852  Dr.  Gauntlett  conceived  the  idea  of  substituting 
an  electric  system  to  take  the  place  of  the  cumbrous,  and 
in  large  organs  almost  impossible,  tracker  system  which 
had  the  additional  weakness  of  being  very  susceptible  to 
humidity.  But  he  could  get  no  recognition  for  his  ideas, 
although  he  had  them  patented.  It  was  not  until  1867 
that  an  electric  organ  was  built  in  the  church  of  St. 
Augustine  in  Paris,  after  which  the  system  came  into 
vogue  in  England.  Booth  in  1827,  Barker  in  1832,  and 
Hamilton  in  1835  had  already  brought  into  play  the  use 
of  pneumatic  pressure,  but  the  principle  was  not  prac¬ 
tically  applied  to  the  whole  action  until  1867.  Many 
other  improvements  in  all  parts  of  the  organ  have  since 
been  made,  especially  in  voicing,  but  they  are  so  detailed 


416 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


and  so  purely  mechanical  that  the  student  must  be  re¬ 
ferred  to  extensive  treatises  upon  the  subject. 

It  was  noticed  that  in  the  mediaeval  contrapuntal  devel¬ 
opment  the  initiative  came  from  the  South,  but  reached 
its  culminating  point  of  excellence,  either  in  the  North,  or 
under  the  influence  of  northern  theorists  and  composers. 
The  first  organ  in  the  North  came  from  Constantinople, 
but  the  development  of  the  instrument  into  a  noble  ex¬ 
pression  of  divine  praise  was  due  again  to  the  erstwhile 
barbarians  of  the  North. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  the  “Organ”  of  the  Bible? 

2.  What  was  the  probable  development  of  musical  pipes? 

3.  How  was  the  reed  pipe  developed? 

4.  What  organs  were  used  in  the  centuries  before  Christ? 

5.  Why  did  they  not  survive  after  the  beginning  of  the 
Christian  era? 

6.  What  traces  of  the  organ  do  we  find  in  use  in  church 
service  before  800  a.  d.  ? 

7.  When  did  organs  become  numerous  in  England? 

8.  How  were  organs  played  in  its  early  history? 

o.  What  was  one  of  the  chief  problems  in  the  development 
of  the  organ? 

10.  What  increase  in  the  number  of  pipes  was  made  in  the 
twelfth  century,  and  with  what  effect? 

11.  Why  did  some  of  the  clergy  object  to  the  organ? 

12.  What  important  progress  did  the  monk,  Nicholas  Faber, 
achieve  in  the  fourteenth  century?  How  was  it  utilized? 

13.  What  further  development  was  due  to  Timotheus  in  the 
fifteenth  century? 

14.  What  other  important  improvements  were  made  in  this 
same  century? 

15.  By  what  date  had  the  main  features  of  the  pipe  organ 
been  developed? 

16.  What  important  improvements  have  been  made  since  and 
by  whom? 

17.  What  correspondence  is  there  between  the  development 
of  counterpoint  and  of  the  pipe  organ? 


XXXI 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC 


Class  Room  Suggestions:  If  this  chapter  is  not  limited  to 
reading  merely,  it  would  be  interesting  to  have  some  skillful 
organist  secure  and  play  typical  music  of  the  several  periods  of 
organ  music. 

Supplementary  Reading:  C.  F.  Abdy  Williams,  “  The  Story  of 
Organ  Music,”  Scribner’s  Sons,  New  York;  Ritter,  “  Geschichte 
des  Orgelspiels,”  2  vols.,  Hesse,  Leipzig;  Pirro,  “Johann  Se¬ 
bastian  Bach,”  Schirmer,  New  York. 

In  this  day  and  generation  there  is  no  other  instrument 
that  is  heard  played  by  competent  and  even  professional 
players  so  much  and  so  often  as  the  pipe  organ.  Leav¬ 
ing  out  of  consideration  its  use  in  theaters  and  picture 
shows,  it  is  as  constant  and  nearly  as  conspicuous  in 
church  services  as  the  human  voice,  whether  in  speech 
or  song.  The  minister,  among  whose  resources  the 
music  of  this  instrument  is  a  most  important  element, 
ought  to  be  conversant  not  only  with  its  origin  and  the 
course  of  its  development  but  also  with  the  compositions 
which  are  immediately  available  for  his  carefully  planned 
orders  of  service. 

The  present  chapter,  despite  its  unavoidable  techni¬ 
calities,  is  by  no  means,  therefore,  the  least  important  in 
this  general  discussion,  and  should  be  carefully  studied 
and  made  a  part  of  the  musical  furniture  of  the  minister’s 
mind. 


1.  Music  of  the  Hydraulus 

The  hydraulic  organ,  or  hydraulus,  used  for  some 

417 


418 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


centuries  before  the  Christian  era  and  decreasingly  so 
after  it,  was  described  in  the  previous  chapter.  It  was 
a  well  developed  instrument  with  a  keyboard  and  dif¬ 
ferent  registers  or  stops.  Its  music  was  rhythmical  and 
had  varied  power,  loud  and  soft.  The  rhythm  and  tempo 
were  frequently  changed  and  the  execution  was  often 
rapid  and  brilliant.  There  was  no  harmony,  perhaps  at 
most  a  droning  note  like  that  of  a  bagpipe.  The  instru¬ 
ment  did  not  have  available  wind  pressure  to  sustain  a 
chord.  Indeed,  harmony  was  unknown  to  the  ancients 
and  would  have  been  painful  to  them.  The  keys  were 
somewhat  larger  than  our  present  standard  and  none  of 
them  were  raised,  or  black,  like  our  five  chromatic  keys 
in  every  octave.  The  playing  upon  this  instrument  was 
considered  a  high  accomplishment,  the  Emperor  Nero 
priding  himself  on  his  skill  upon  it,  frequently  playing 
in  public. 

Claudian,  the  Latin  poet  of  the  fourth  century,  refers 
to  the  player’s  skill  on  the  hydraulus  as  follows: 

“  Et  qui  magna  levi  detrudens  murmura  tactu, 
Innumeras  vocas  segetis  moderatus  aenae, 

Intonet  erranti  digito,  penitusque  trabali, 

Vecte  laborantes  in  carmina  concitat  undas.” 1 

Some  of  the  early  Greek  Philosophers  taught  that 
music,  which  in  that  day,  of  course,  was  mere  melody, 
played  on  an  instrument,  without  words,  was  a  mere  suc¬ 
cession  of  meaningless  sounds.  The  value  of  instru¬ 
ments  lay  solely  in  their  help  in  sustaining  the  voices,  in 
their  estimation. 

1  “  Who  with  light  touch  produces  great  sounds,  calls  forth  with 
wandering  finger  the  innumerable  voices  of  the  brazen  crop 
(pipes),  and,  through  a  beam-like  lever  within,  rouses  the  labour¬ 
ing  waters  into  song.” 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OP  ORGAN  MUSIC  419 


2.  The  Instinct  for  Form 

It  was  the  constant  and  age-long  striving  of  composers 
to  make  instrumental  music  significant,  and  they  gradually 
found  the  solution  of  the  problem  in  developing  structure 
and  form.  Rhythm  defined  the  structure  of  details, 
creating  phrases.  Form  is  the  structural  element  of  a 
whole  composition  working  through  modulation  and  con¬ 
trasts  of  keys,  and  through  the  grouping  of  the  periods 
and  sections  marked  by  cadences  less  or  more  final. 
The  evolution  of  this  architectonic  element  in  music  has 
been  very  slow  and  has  reached  its  culmination  in  our 
own  day.  The  recent  emphasis  of  free  form  is  evidence 
of  a  reaction  against  it.  But  the  present  high  estate  of 
music  has  been  won  by  the  development,  century  after 
century,  of  form,  general  and  detailed. 

3.  How  Instrumental  Music  Appeals 

In  seeking  a  reason  for  the  existence  of  instrumental 
music,  Mr.  Williams  in  his  “  Story  of  Organ  Music,”  on 
which  the  writer  has  leaned  rather  heavily  in  preparing 
this  rapid  survey,  comes  to  the  following  conclusion : 
“  Instrumental  music  appeals  in  three  ways  to  the 
listener:  (1)  to  his  astonishment  or  admiration  through 
the  agility  of  the  performer,  (2)  to  his  intelligence 
through  its  scientific  construction,  (3)  to  his  emotions 
through  the  sentiment  that  may  be  inherent  in  the  com¬ 
position,  or  in  its  manner  of  performance.  The  best 
results  are  obtained  by  a  happy  combination  of  all  three. 
If  the  first  predominates,  or  entirely  excludes  the  others, 
the  music  descends  to  the  level  of  a  clever  performance 
on  a  tight  rope  or  any  other  gymnastic  exercise  which 
astonishes;  if  the  second  only,  the  music  is  apt  to  be 
called  dry,  though  this  is  not  necessarily  the  case;  and 


420 


THE  PIPE  OEGAN 


if  only  the  third  feature  is  present,  the  music  becomes 
mawkish  and  sickening.” 

The  development  of  organ  music  in  a  general  way 
passed  through  these  three  stages :  ( i )  noisy,  brilliant, 
merely  nerve  exciting  display,  (2)  in  merely  intellectual 
problems  and  puzzles  in  elaborate  counterpoint  and 
polyphony,  (3)  in  seeking  such  successions  of  tones  and 
chords  that  would  express  sentiment  and  emotion. 

4.  The  First  Stage  of  Organ  Music 

The  earliest  organ  composers,  with  no  definite  art 
forms  to  guide  them, — for  the  dance  music  played  on 
other  instruments  was  not  fitted  for  use  on  the  organ, — 
groped  blindly,  content  to  astonish  with  noise  and  later 
with  meaningless  cascades  of  runs  and  trills  and  turns. 
While  the  organ  was  used  in  many  of  the  churches  of 
Christendom  from  the  eighth  century  on,  it  was  so  rude 
and  clumsy,  as  we  have  seen  in  a  previous  chapter,  that 
its  only  use  was  to  support  the  singing  of  the  Plain  song 
by  the  choir,  and  by  the  congregation  where  it  was  still 
permitted  to  share  in  the  service  of  song.  Its  other 
incidental  use  was  to  make  a  noise  and  so  attract  people 
to  the  church  services,  just  as  even  in  our  own  day  bells 
are  rung. 

The  composers  were  handicapped  by  the  prevalent 
church  modes  or  hexachords  which  gave  little  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  expressiveness  or  variety  of  tone  colour,  such 
as  is  afforded  by  our  modern  scales.  They  had  no  black 
keys  to  play  on,  their  modes  recognizing  only  B \?  instead 
of  our  five  chromatic  tones;  so  no  modulation  to  other 
keys  was  possible.  The  laws  governing  the  structure  of 
phrases  and  periods  were  yet  to  be  formulated,  although 
by  native  rhythmical  instinct,  they  sometimes  obeyed 
them.  It  takes  no  great  musical  insight  to  perceive  how 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC  421 


monotonous  and  inexpressive  the  result  must  have  been. 
The  period  preceding  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
has  left  scanty  remains  of  organ  compositions  and  they 
have  no  artistic  value  to  us.  They  are  interesting 
chiefly  as  showing  the  toilsome  way  through  which  our 
present  efficient  organ  music  has  come  down  to  us. 

When  the  early  organists  desired  to  play  solos  on  the 
organ  they  usually  used  current  madrigals,  motets,  and 
other  compositions,  simply  playing  the  voice  parts.  Later 
they  learned  to  embellish  them  with  all  manner  of  orna¬ 
mental  passages,  known  as  “  colorato.” 

Perhaps  the  best  representatives  of  this  bravura 
school  was  Francesco  Laudino  (1325-1390).  Astonish¬ 
ing  descriptions  have  come  down  to  us  of  his  skill  and 
of  the  effects  he  produced  on  his  hearers.  A  later  organ¬ 
ist  of  repute  was  Antonio  Squarcialupo,  nearly  a  century 
later,  of  Florence,  an  intimate  friend  of  Lorenzo  the 
Magnificent,  the  fame  of  whose  playing  went  out  into 
distant  countries.  Neither  of  these  men  left  any  music 
by  which  we  may  judge  with  what  materials  they  so 
charmed  their  contemporaries. 

5.  The  Second  Stage  of  Organ  Music 

As  the  contrapuntists  increased  in  skill  and  in  the 
composition  of  masses,  motets  and  madrigals,  organ 
music  inevitably  reflected  the  progress,  and  passed  out  of 
the  mechanically  florid  manner  into  the  more  intellectual 
application  of  counterpoint.  This  was  initiated  in  Venice 
by  Adrian  Willaert  (1490-1562),  the  famous  Flemish 
maestro.  He  not  only  had  two  choirs,  but  introduced 
the  organ  as  an  essential  part  of  the  choral  service.  The 
first  book  of  organ  music,  “  Ricercari,  Motets,  and 
Canzoni,”  was  published  in  1523  by  Marco  Antonio  di 
Bologna,  which  preceded  the  books  of  Willaert  and 


422 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


Buus,  his  associate  organist,  by  twenty-six  years;  but 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  advance  was  really  due  to  the 
Flemish  masters  of  Venice. 

The  word  “  tablature  ”  occurs  in  this  first  book  of 
organ  music  and  appears  for  centuries  to  come.  Its 
synonym  may  be  said  to  be  “  short  score.”  The  voice 
parts  were  written  in  full  score,  i.  e.,  each  voice  had  its 
own  staff.  The  average  organist  of  any  age  would  find 
it  difficult  to  play  polyphonic  music  in  open  score,  and 
hence  it  was  a  great  convenience  to  have  them  condensed 
on  two  staffs, — the  treble  staff  for  the  right  hand,  and 
the  bass  staff  for  the  left. 

These  “  Ricercari  ”  were  contrapuntal  in  style,  and  all 
the  arts  and  devices  of  counterpoint  were  applied  to  them. 
They  were  very  lengthy  and  elaborate  and  later  de¬ 
veloped  into  the  fugue.  The  “  Canzona  Francese  ”  was 
a  simpler  form,  based  on  the  French  Chansons,  and 
approached  the  song  form.  The  “  Toccata  ”  was  also 
invented  about  this  time.  It  was  in  the  nature  of  a  lively 
prelude  to  more  serious  playing,  and  was  brilliant  and 
florid.  Wasielewski  in  his  “  Geschichte  der  Instru- 
mentalmusik  ”  says  of  these  “  Ricercari,”  “  The  im¬ 
pression  they  produce  is  essentially  wearisome  and  dry 
and  monotonous.  They  are  generally  of  great  length 
and  they  sound  like  troubled,  uneasy  successions  of  notes, 
wanting  in  contrast  of  subjects  and  strength  of  ideas; 
the  eye  is  more  satisfied  than  the  ear.” 

It  may  well  be  that  in  their  extempore  playing  these 
early  composers  developed  more  interest  and  animation, 
else  how  could  they  have  produced  the  popular  effects 
that  are  reported  to  us  by  contemporary  writers? 

A  later  organist  of  St.  Mark’s,  Venice,  Claudio  Merula 
(I533"I^°4)  is  notable  for  showing  more  originality  of 
themes  in  his  organ  compositions,  leaning  less  heavily 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC  423 


on  motets  and  madrigals.  He  varied  the  note  values 
more  than  had  his  predecessors  who  had  written  long 
successions  of  equal  notes.  His  harmonic  progression 
was  more  artistic  and  less  monotonous. 

Palestrina  (1514-1594)  wrote  little  for  the  organ,  leav¬ 
ing  a  single  volume  of  Ricercari  in  manuscript  form,  all 
dominated  by  the  church  modes,  although  instances  occur 
of  modulation  into  the  related  keys. 

More  important  were  the  organists  of  St.  Mark’s, 
Venice,  Andrea  Gabrielli  (1512-1586),  teacher  of  Leo 
Hassler  and  Peter  Sweelinck,and  of  his  nephew,  Giovanni 
Gabrielli  (1557-1612),  who  in  turn  was  the  teacher  of 
Schuetz,  Graun,  and  Praetorius.  Andrea  was  a  pupil  of 
Willaert  and  so  fell  heir  to  the  traditions  of  his  later 
position.  Giovanni  was  an  even  better  contrapuntist 
than  his  uncle.  They  naturally  modelled  their  organ 
music  on  that  of  Willaert  and  Buus,  but  showed  marked 
advance  in  their  fugal  construction. 

Important  are  the  two  volumes  of  “  II  Transilvano,” 
issued  by  Girolamo  Diruta  (1560-?),  instruction  books 
for  organists  regarding  notation,  fingering,  registration, 
etc.  It  is  noteworthy  that  the  thumb  was  not  used  until 
Bach’s  time.  The  book  contains  Toccatas,  Ricercari,  and 
Canzoni  by  all  the  leading  Italian  organists  of  his  day. 
These,  with  his  instructions,  reveal  the  general  musical 

situation  of  Central  and  Northern  Italy  in  his  age. 

/ 

6.  The  Third  Stage  of  Organ  Music 

Up  to  this  time  we  have  been  passing  through  the 
intellectual,  constructive  period.  With  Girolomo  Fresco- 
baldi  (1583-1654)  we  begin  the  striving  after  ex¬ 
pression.  Undoubtedly  the  influence  of  Monteverde, 
the  antagonist  of  the  old  cramping  polyphonic 
modal  system,  and  the  protagonist  of  the  new  harmony, 


424 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


of  the  new  modern  scales,  of  the  new  expression,  was 
felt  by  him.  His  contrapuntal  themes  were  fresh  and 
forcible.  In  his  harmonies  he  sought  expression  and 
colour,  though  often  crude  and  inconsequent.  The  writ¬ 
ers  of  hymn  voluntaries  to-day  were  anticipated  by 
Frescobaldi,  who  used  even  secular  melodies  as  the  basis 
of  some  of  his  organ  compositions. 

He  varied  the  forms  of  his  organ  music  writing  not 
only  Ricercari,  Canzoni,  and  Toccatas,  but  Partite,  Cor- 
renti,  Baletti,  and  other  styles,  based  on  vocal  forms. 

His  influence  on  later  organ  music  was  of  supreme  im¬ 
portance,  as  he  introduced  an  aggressive,  innovating  ele¬ 
ment  that  sought  to  give  inner  significance  to  the  instru¬ 
mental  music  of  the  church.  He  was  the  first  to  give 
directions  as  to  the  playing  of  his  music  in  order  to  secure 
the  needed  expression. 

His  fame  was  so  great  that  when  he  played  in  St. 
Peter’s  in  Rome  in  1614,  thirty  thousand  people  gathered 
to  hear  him. 

There  were  a  number  of  organists  in  various  parts  of 
Italy  who  wrote  organ  music  in  the  new  style  during  the 
following  century,  but  presently  the  fire  burned  low,  for 
musical  talent  turned  to  the  writing  of  operas,  which 
absorbed  all  the  popular  interest  in  music.  Of  recent 
years  some  good  writing  has  been  done  by  Capocci  and 
Bossi,  but  their  compositions  have  had  no  influence  out¬ 
side  of  Italy  and  they  need  not  detain  us. 

7.  Organ  Music  in  Germany 

The  period  of  mere  nerve  exciting  and  admiration 
winning  playing  in  Germany  is  represented  by  Conrad 
Paulmann  (1400-1473)  of  Nuremburg,  a  contemporary 
of  Squarcialupo  and  apparently  his  equal  in  winning  a 
high  standing  at  court.  He  issued  a  book,  “  Funda- 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC  425 


mentum  Organizandi,”  on  extempore  playing,  which  gives 
an  insight  into  the  instruments  used  and  the  ideals  ac¬ 
cepted  by  organists  of  that  time. 

Other  organists  of  this  period  were  Hofheimer  and 
Luscinius  of  Vienna. 

An  even  more  important  figure  is  that  of  Arnold 
Schlick  (1460-?)  who  was  also  a  blind  man,  as  Laudino 
and  Paulmann  had  been.  He  was  the  author  of  the  oldest 
printed  German  organ  collection.  He  is  a  distinct  ad¬ 
vance  on  Paulmann.  The  pedal  is  used  by  him  as  an 
independent  bass  part.  His  melody,  or  Cantus  Firmus, 
is  often  the  highest  part,  and,  when  desirable  for  greater 
concord,  he  changes  it.  While  he  uses  the  Dorian  mode, 
he  introduces  Bb  and  C#,  thus  anticipating  the  modern  D 
minor  scale.  He  uses  deceptive  cadences  and  his  final 
closes  are  formed  with  a  dominant  major  chord,  as  is 
done  at  present. 

He  also  uses  the  triad  of  Ab,  badly  out  of  tune  with 
the  old  system  of  tuning,  but  perfectly  concordant  when 
the  instrument  is  tuned  according  to  the  Equable  Tem¬ 
perament  system  now  in  vogue.  Either  he  had  heard  the 
advocacy  of  this  system  by  Bartolo  Ramis,  a  Spaniard, 
thirty  years  before  at  Bologna,  or  he  had  independently 
discovered  it.  He  also  published  a  book  on  organ  build¬ 
ing  which  marks  notable  advances. 

There  was  endless  confusion  in  the  notation  of  the 
German  tablatures  for  the  organ  during  this  period.  Some 
had  a  five  line  staff  for  the  right  hand  but  simply  a 
system  of  figures  for  the  bass ;  others  had  simply  figures 
for  both  hands  surmounted  by  signs  indicating  length  of 
note ; 2  others  still  had  five  lines  for  the  right  hand  and 

2  It  is  strange  how  long  this  figure  system  obtained  in  Germany. 
The  writer  has  in  his  possession  a  little  booklet  used  in  the  village 
school  by  his  mother  circa  1838  in  which  there  is  one  line,  on 


426 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


an  indefinite  number  for  the  left.  This  senseless  con¬ 
fusion  was  continued  in  Germany  long  after  a  standard¬ 
ized  notation  had  been  established  everywhere  else  in 
Europe. 

The  Italian  style  of  “  colorato  ”  now  invaded  Germany 
and  for  nearly  half  a  century  debased  German  organ 
music  and  submerged  the  advances  made  by  Schlick. 

The  last  of  the  colourists  was  Johann  Woltz  of  Heil- 
brunn.  He  issued  a  book  in  1617,  “  Nova  Musices  Or¬ 
ganic^  Tabulatura.”  While  he  is  still  a  colourist,  he 
uses  more  discretion  and  restraint,  has  fresher  figures 
and  disregards  stock  turns  and  figures  that  had  become 
stale.  He  deprecates  the  German  tablature  or  system  of 
notation  and  advises  organists  to  adopt  the  Italian,  or 
standard.  Instead  of  describing  compositions  in  his  col¬ 
lection  by  church  modes,  he  gives  the  fundamental  of 
the  final  chord,  which  is  the  keynote  of  its  scale,  as  with 
us.  His  own  music  is  no  longer  thin,  but  is  rich  with 
full  sounding  harmonies. 

In  the  meantime  the  German  Reformation  had  brought 
in  the  new  Lutheran  chorales  which  the  people  sang  with 
unfailing  gusto  and  enthusiasm.  Organists  were  not  slow 
to  take  advantage  of  this  interest  in  the  chorales  and 
introduced  them  with  preliminary  passages,  based  on  the 
tune  to  be  sung.  These  developed  into  short  organ  move¬ 
ments  which  the  extemporizing  organist,  or  the  composer, 
enriched  with  all  the  resources  at  his  command.  This 
new  form  of  organ  music  was  very  popular  with  German 
church  composers  and  had  a  large  influence  on  later 
organ  music. 

Samuel  Scheidt  (1587-1654),  a  pupil  of  Sweelinck  of 
Amsterdam,  who  had  been  a  pupil  of  the  elder  Gabrielli 

which  and  on  the  space  above  and  below  it,  were  the  figures  of 
the  octave,  each  space  and  the  line  representing  a  separate  octave. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC  427 


at  St.  Mark’s,  Venice,  issued  his  “  Tabulatura  Nova”  in 
1624  in  which  the  chorale  is  treated  in  pure  organ  style. 
It  had  many  other  points  of  progress  and  marked  and 
made  a  distinct  advance  in  German  organ  music.  The 
advance  was  evident  not  only  in  the  music,  but  in  the 
instructions  he  gave  for  the  conduct  of  the  musical  part 
of  the  service  and  in  the  management  of  the  organ  itself. 

The  Lutheran  Church  service  gave  more  time  to  organ 
music  than  the  Roman,  and  in  response  to  this  opportunity 
the  Germans  advanced  more  rapidly  than  the  Italians, 
who  were  having  their  musical  energies  deflected  to  the 
opera. 

The  musical  tempo  in  Germany  was  accelerating  during 
the  seventeenth  century,  as  it  should,  approaching  a  great 
climax.  Heinrich  Scheideman  was  another  pupil  of 
Sweelinck,  and  when  he  died  in  1663  his  post  as  organist 
of  Hamburg’s  great  St.  Catherine’s  church  was  taken  by 
Reinken.  Reinken  had  such  a  great  reputation  as  an 
organist  among  his  contemporaries  that  Johann  Sebastian 
Bach  made  two  journeys  to  hear  him. 

Dietrich  Buxtehude  (1637-1707),  organist  of  the 
Marien-Kirche  of  Luebeck,  was  another  organist  of  great 
note,  whom  young  Bach  walked  fifty  miles  to  hear  play. 
He  led  the  way  in  unifying  the  fugue  by  drawing  his 
material  for  subsequent  subjects  out  of  the  first.  His 
harmonies  are  bold  and  full  of  striking  colour.  Although 
his  organ  was  tuned  on  the  old  system,  he  defied  its  dis¬ 
cords  in  working  out  his  wide  sweeping  modulations. 

In  South  Germany  we  have  Hans  Leo  Hassler  (1564- 
1612),  a  pupil  of  the  Gabriellis  of  Venice,  who  was  dis¬ 
tinguished  as  an  organist  and  a  composer.  Kindermann, 
Schlemmer,  Pachelbel,  were  shining  examples  of  the 
progress  of  the  German  organ  music.  Pachelbel  is  con¬ 
spicuous  because  of  his  development  of  the  chorale  pre- 


428 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


ludes  and  interludes  and  his  elaborate  fugues  based  on  the 
melody  of  the  chorale.  Johann  Jacob  Frohberger  (1610- 
1667)  is  of  importance  chiefly  because  of  the  influence 
he  had  through  his  music  on  the  development  of  Bach, 
who  copied  out  some  of  his  composition  by  moonlight,  as 
he  could  find  no  other  opportunity. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  of  the  South  German  Catholic 
organists  was  Georg  Muffat  (1645-1704).  He  had  a 
varied  experience  in  Paris,  Strassburg,  Rome,  Salzburg, 
Passau.  His  music  is  esteemed  by  high  critics  as  equal 
to  that  of  Buxtehude,  his  northern  contemporary.  His 
Roman  experience  and  French  training  and  Southern 
German  blood  made  an  admirable  combination  of  spon¬ 
taneity  and  grace,  of  great  learning,  and  of  appeal  to  both 
thought  and  sentiment,  which  is  so  noticeable  in  his  music. 
Ritter  says  that  “  in  the  toccata  he  surpasses  all  previous 
German  masters  except  Buxtehude,  who  died  some  seven 
years  before  him,  and  whose  powerful  use  of  the  pedal 
makes  up  for  the  want  of  Muffat’s  warmth  of  colour. 
He  is  the  first  who  takes  us  out  of  the  realm  of  mere 
sound  and  tone  quality  into  that  of  soul-inspiring  music.” 

So  here  we  have  passed  in  German  organ  music  the 
three  periods  of  organ  music  that  we  found  in  Italy,  (1) 
the  noisy,  brilliant,  merely  nerve  exciting  display,  (2) 
the  merely  intellectual  problems  and  puzzles  of  elaborate 
counterpoint  and  polyphony,  and  (3)  seeking  such  suc¬ 
cession  of  tones  and  chords  as  would  express  sentiment 
and  emotion.  We  found  an  abundance  of  (1)  and  (2) 
among  the  Germans,  but  their  somewhat  mechanical  mind 
did  not  yield  much  of  the  (3)  until  we  reach  Muffat. 
Now  we  shall  reach  a  great  composer  in  whom  all  three 
find  expression  in  a  perfect  blending,  such  as  presents 
itself  in  no  other  organ  music  composer. 

John  Sebastian  Bach  (1685-1750)  belonged  to  the 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC  429 


great  musical  family  located  in  Thuringia,  the  same 
region  which  had  produced  Martin  Luther,  two  centuries 
before.  He  was  a  man  of  considerable  general  educa¬ 
tion,  despite  his  precocity  in  music.  From  youth  up  he 
was  characterized  by  an  insatiable  greed  for  hard  work, 
as  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  he  copied  out  by 
moonlight  a  book  of  organ  music  which  his  older  brother 
had  forbidden  him  to  use.  It  illustrates  German  arbitrari¬ 
ness  that  when  his  brother  discovered  the  copy,  he  con¬ 
fiscated  it ! 

Part  of  Bach’s  success  was  due  to  his  intimate  knowl¬ 
edge  of  what  preceding  composers  had  done.  His  visits 
to  Hamburg  to  hear  Reinken  play,  to  Luebeck  to  hear 
Buxtehude  and  his  great  organ  and  the  “Abendmusik,” 
a  sort  of  musical  vesper  service,  an  old  Luebeck  institu¬ 
tion  that  Buxtehude  had  brought  to  a  high  degree  of  per¬ 
fection,  and  to  Celle,  attracted  by  the  great  reputation  the 
Ducal  Band  there  had  won  by  its  playing  of  French 
dance  music,  indicate  his  consuming  interest  in  the  best 
music  Germany  afforded. 

His  industry  is  something  stupendous.  His  work  in 
the  writing  of  oratorios  and  cantatas  of  which  considera¬ 
tion  was  had  in  a  previous  chapter  would  have  been  an 
abundant  life-work  for  most  composers.  That  was  in  line 
with  his  duties  as  cantor  in  the  St.  Thomas  Kirche  in 
Leipzig;  but  in  addition  there  have  been  handed  down  no 
less  than  nine  volumes  of  organ  music,  containing  sonatas, 
passacaglia,  preludes,  fugues,  toccatas,  fantasias,  canzoni, 
choral  vorspiele,  concertos,  all  of  unfailing  freshness  and 
originality,  as  well  as  of  scholarship  and  skill. 

In  industry,  and  in  the  amount  of  music  written,  he 
had  equals  in  his  own  generation,  for  Telemann  in  Ham¬ 
burg  wrote  literally  thousands  of  compositions,  and 
Handel  in  London,  with  his  scores  of  operas  and  of 


430 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


oratorios,  was  not  far  behind  him.  But  Telemann  had 
little  freshness  or  originality,  and  no  depth,  while  Handel 
not  only  constantly  used  material  from  his  own  previous 
works,  but  incessantly  plagiarized  the  compositions  of 
others.  But  the  fertility  of  Bach’s  mind  was  such  that  it 
poured  out  an  incessant  stream  of  ever  fresh,  ever 
original  ideas.  He  used  the  forms  that  had  been  handed 
down,  but  filled  them  with  new  ideas,  new  effects,  new 
combinations,  with  a  prodigality  unexampled  elsewhere. 
He  touched  the  old  seemingly  outworn  forms  and  they 
grew  in  beauty  and  expressiveness  under  his  pen.  Every¬ 
where  there  is  progress;  everything  reaches  its  consum¬ 
mate  flower  of  perfection. 

While  no  small  part  of  Bach’s  music  is  still  in  the 
intellectual  stage,  and  is  interesting  to  the  eye  of  the 
technician  rather  than  grateful  to  the  ear  of  a  lover  of 
music,  it  is  astonishing  how  much  of  emotional  expres¬ 
siveness  he  attains  in  some  of  his  technical  tours  de  force. 
Played  as  one  often  hears  Bach’s  f'ugal  work,  one  can 
sympathize  with  the  musical  vicar  of  a  London  church 
who  declared,  “  I  do  not  like  to  hear  Bach’s  music  played 
in  church ;  it  sounds  to  me  as  if  the  Devil  had  broken 
loose  on  the  organ.”  But  in  many  of  his  organ  pieces, 
and  particularly  in  his  cantatas,  one  finds  a  depth  of  feel¬ 
ing,  a  profound  realization  of  the  inner  values  of  the 
texts  he  set,  that  can  be  found  nowhere  else,  unless  we 
except  Handel’s  “  Messiah.”  3 

8  Space  forbids  an  adequate  treatment  of  this  great  composer 
for  the  organ.  The  student  should  carefully  peruse  the  articles 
in  Grove’s  “  Dictionary  ”  on  “  Bach,”  “  Oratorios,”  “  Cantatas,” 
and  Dickinson’s  chapter  on  Bach  in  his  “  Music  in  the  History  of 
the  Western  Church  ”  in  order  to  get  an  adequate  idea  of  his 
importance  and  influence.  C.  F.  Peters,  and  Breitkopf  and 
Hertel,  both  Leipzig  music  publishers,  have  complete  editions  of 
his  works. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OP  ORGAN  MUSIC  431 


While  Bach  used  all  that  was  best  in  the  Italian  style, 
he  was  too  Germanic  and  strong  for  the  age  in  which  he 
lived  and  for  those  that  succeeded.  Italian  flippancy  and 
superficiality  reigned  supreme  all  over  Europe,  not  ex¬ 
cepting  Germany  itself.  He  did  not  come  to  his  own 
until  in  the  early  part  of  the  nineteenth  century  Mendels¬ 
sohn  in  Germany,  and  Samuel  Wesley  in  England,  by 
persistent  propaganda  called  belated  attention  to  his  work. 

After  Bach’s  time  organ  music  degenerated  in  Germany 
as  far  as.  technique  and  progressiveness  were  concerned. 
His  son,  Friedemann  (1710-1780)  was  the  greatest  or¬ 
ganist  in  Germany  in  his  day,  but  lacked  his  father’s  in¬ 
dustry,  preferring  to  extemporize,  and  wrote  little.  Not 
until  J.  C.  H.  Rinck  (1770-1846)  began  writing  was 
anything  noteworthy  composed,  and  the  shadow  of  the 
great  Johann  Sebastian  Bach  lay  upon  him.  As  he  said, 
“Bach  is  a  colossus  who  dominates  the  musical  world; 
one  cannot  hope  to  follow  in  his  footsteps  for  he  has 
exhausted  everything  in  his  domain.  I  have  always  con¬ 
sidered  that  if  I  am  to  succeed  in  composing  anything 
worthy  of  approval,  it  must  be  on  different  lines  from 
his.” 

His  “  Practical  Organ  School  ”  was  a  standard  work 
for  nearly  a  century.  Although  a  pupil  of  Bach  in  the 
second  generation,  he  departed  from  the  fugal  style  of 
the  master;  but  what  he  wrote  was  dignified,  churchly, 
and  above  all  practical,  and  his  music  is  still  in  general 
use. 

Mendelssohn  (1809-1847)  was  a  virtuoso  on  the  organ, 
as  well  as  on  the  piano.  His  extemporization  roused 
great  enthusiasm  in  England,  as  well  as  in  Germany, 
because  of  its  technical  excellence  and  its  effectiveness. 
He  wrote  six  organ  sonatas  which  are  classics  in  organ 
literature,  besides  three  preludes  and  fugues. 


432 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


August  Gottfried  Ritter  (1811-1885)  wrote  organ 
sonatas,  choral  vorspiele,  fugues,  and  variations,  but  is 
still  best  known  by  his  exhaustive  history  of  organ  play¬ 
ing,  “  Geschichte  des  Orgelspiels.” 

A  more  important  organ  composer  was  Joseph  Gabriel 
von  Rheinberger  (1839-1901),  Court-Capellmeister  at 
Munich,  who  wrote  a  series  of  organ  sonatas  of  an  artistic 
value  equal  to  anything  written  for  the  modern  orchestra. 
He  is  fertile  in  invention,  a  master  of  counterpoint  and 
the  fugue,  yet  modern  in  spirit.  Perhaps  no  name  ap¬ 
pears  on  the  order  of  service  of  leading  city  churches  of 
this  country  as  often  as  that  of  Rheinberger. 

8.  Organ  Music  in  Other  Countries 

(a)  Organ  Music  in  France .  There  is  little  in  the 
history  of  French  organ  music  that  need  arrest  attention. 
It  followed  somewhat  the  same  course  as  in  Italy  and 
Germany,  except  that  it  has  no  composers  of  the  calibre 
of  Buxtehude  and  Bach,  and  that  in  general  its  music 
was  more  suave  and  graceful,  more  definitely  calculated 
to  please  the  congregation  for  which  it  was  to  be  played. 
Such  names  as  Titleouze,  Gigault,  Raison,  le  Begue,  De 
Chambonnieres,  Couperni,  Marchand,  Rameau,  de  Celles, 
mark  the  pleasing  path  of  its  development.  During  the 
last  century  the  following  composers  have  done  pleasing 
although  not  strong  work:  Louis  Lambillotte  (1797- 
1857),  Louis  James  Alfred  Lefebure-Wely  (1817-1869), 
Caesar  Auguste  Franck  (1822-1890),  Charles  Camille 
Saint  Saens  (1835-1921),  Francois  Dubois  (1837-  ), 

Felix  Alexandre  Guilmant  (1837-  )  and  Charles 

Marie  Widor  (1845-  )• 

The  most  widely  known  of  these  is  Guilmant,  whose 
compositions  are  much  used  by  American  organists. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC  433 


Widor  has  written  in  somewhat  larger  forms  and  his 
name  is  only  occasionally  seen  in  orders  of  service. 

Antoine  Edouard  Batiste  (1820-1876)  wrote  some  very 
popular  organ  pieces  which  have,  however,  been  severely 
criticised  for  their  frequently  florid  and  almost  frivolous 
character. 

( b )  Belgian  Organ  Music.  The  most  prominent  re¬ 
cent  Belgian  composer  of  organ  music  is  Nicolas  Jacques 
Lemmens  (1833-1881),  whose  name  is  only  occasionally 
seen  on  American  programs. 

(c)  Dutch  Organ  Music.  In  the  record  of  the  Dutch 
organists  only  three  names  stand  out  as  important.  Jan 
Pieterszoon  Sweelinck  (1562-1621),  Anthony  van  Noordt 
and  Simon  van  Eyken  (1822-1868).  Of  these  the  first 
only  need  detain  us.  He  is  reputed  to  have  been  a  pupil 
of  the  elder  Gabrielli  of  Venice,  although  that  is  denied. 
That  he  was  a  great  organist  and  the  teacher  of  great 
organists  is  not  in  question.  He  was  called  the  great 
“  Organist-maker.”  He  had  a  great  influence  in  north¬ 
ern  Germany  and  was  one  of  Bach’s  musical  ancestors, 
so  to  speak. 

( d )  Organ  Music  in  England.  There  were  a  number 
of  reasons  why  organ  music  did  not  develop  in  England 
as  rapidly  as  on  the  Continent.  The  English  service  does 
not  give  the  organ  the  same  opportunity  as  do  the  Roman 
and  the  Lutheran.  The  Puritan  prejudice  militated 
against  it.  The  Boethian  unequal  temperament  tuning 
held  sway  in  England  longer  than  elsewhere  and  handi¬ 
capped  composition  by  its  narrow  range  of  possible  to¬ 
nality.  The  vocal  music  through  the  choirs  overshadowed 
instrumental  development. 

The  names  of  organ  composers  are  in  general  the  same 
as  those  met  in  studying  the  psalm  tune  and  the  anthem : 
Tallis,  Tye,  Byrd,  Bull,  Orlando  Gibbons.  These  all 


434 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


wrote  in  the  contrapuntal  style  prevalent  in  Northern 
Europe  and  handed  down  in  the  vocal  writings  of  the 
Netherland  masters.  With  Humfrey,  who,  as  we  have 
seen,  studied  under  Lully  at  Paris,  the  less  studied  and 
more  melodious  Italian  influence  comes  in,  which  is  more 
or  less  perpetuated  in  Purcell.  This  was  encouraged  by 
Charles  II,  who,  both  by  his  pleasure-loving  disposition 
and  his  experience  abroad,  was  inclined  to  favour  the 
more  popular  style. 

Purcell  wrote  some  excellent  music  very  much  akin  to 
that  of  Bach  in  its  freshness  and  wealth  of  resource,  al¬ 
though  Bach  had  not  yet  begun  writing.  He  was  fully 
established  in  the  modern  use  of  the  key  as  the  unifying 
element.  While  he  professed  to  be  a  follower  of  the 
Italians,  in  spirit  he  was  more  or  less  German. 

His  own  statement  of  the  situation  is  illuminating: 
“  Music  is  but  in  its  nonage,  a  forward  child,  which  gives 
hope  of  what  it  may  be  hereafter  in  England,  when  the 
masters  of  it  shall  find  more  encouragement.  ’Tis  now 
learning  Italian,  which  is  its  best  master,  and  studying  a 
little  more  French  air  to  give  it  somewhat  more  of  gayety 
and  fashion.  Thus,  being  further  from  the  sun,  we  are 
of  later  growth  than  our  neighbouring  countries,  and  must 
be  content  to  shake  off  our  barbarity  by  degrees.  The 
present  age  seems  already  disposed  to  be  refined,  and  to 
distinguish  between  wild  fancy  and  a  just  numerous 
composition.” 

Handel  wrote  very  little  music  for  the  organ  alone, 
quite  a  good  deal  for  the  organ  and  orchestra,  none  of 
which  has  survived  to  the  present  day;  indeed,  it  had 
little  to  do  directly  with  the  further  progress  of  organ 
music  in  England.  Rather  than  a  help  or  inspiration,  he 
overshadowed  church  music,  including  organ  music,  and 
stifled  the  impulse  to  compose. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  ORGAN  MUSIC  435 


In  place  of  the  contrapuntal  compositions  there  now 
came  in  the  solo  with  the  Cornet  or  Vox  Humana  stop 
and  a  mere  accompaniment.  Many  of  them  had  only 
two  parts,  the  solo  and  the  bass  often  two  octaves  apart. 

The  next  notable  composer  was  Samuel  Wesley  (1766- 
1837),  son  of  Rev.  Charles  Wesley,  the  great  Methodist 
hymn  writer.  He  was  a  powerful  extempore  player.  He 
wrote  eleven  concertos  and  a  great  number  of  voluntaries, 
preludes,  fugues  and  interludes.  He  helped  to  restore 
English  organ  music  to  its  former  solid  basis  after  a  long 
period  of  popular  delight  in  trumpet  and  cornet  solos. 
He  did  much  to  win  for  Bach  the  general  appreciation  of 
the  cultivated  musicians  of  England.  His  son,  Samuel 
Sebastian  Wesley  (1810-1876),  inherited  his  father’s 
musical  talent  and  became  a  famous  organist.  He  com¬ 
posed  a  great  deal  of  more  or  less  fugitive  organ  material, 
but  nothing  of  commanding  importance  from  an  artistic 
standpoint. 

Henry  Smart  (1813-1879)  wrote  a  great  deal  of 
miscellaneous  organ  music  of  the  voluntary  type, — an¬ 
dantes,  postludes,  marches,  preludes  and  the  like, — which 
fits  in  admirably  into  the  modern  condensed  form  of 
church  service.  Other  writers  of  the  same  generation 
were  Sir  John  Stainer,  Dr.  E.  J.  Hopkins,  and  Frederick 
Archer. 

The  next  prominent  figure  in  English  organ  music  in 
the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth  century  was  William 
Thomas  Best  (1826-1897).  He  wrote  six  books  of  origi¬ 
nal  compositions,  but  unfortunately  is  chiefly  known  by 
his  arrangements  for  the  organ  of  the  great  masterpieces 
of  music,  vocal  and  instrumental. 

More  recently  some  excellent  organ  writing  has  been 
done  by  Chas.  J.  Vincent,  Albert  L.  Peace  and  Alfred 
Hollins. 


436 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


( e )  Organ  Music  in  America.  America  has  been 
largely  content  to  import  its  organ  music  from  Europe. 
When  her  organists,  like  Buck,  have  written  original 
music,  it  has  been  largely  in  imitation  of  the  smaller  vol¬ 
untary  numbers  of  England  and  Germany. 

There  is  little  opportunity  for  church  music  in  larger 
forms.  Among  the  writers  who  have  done  very  credit¬ 
able  work  are  Arthur  Foote,  Edward  S.  Barnes,  Pedro 
Yon,  James  H.  Rogers,  and  Clarence  Dickinson.  Mrs. 
Emma  L.  Ashford  has  written  a  great  deal  of  charming 
organ  music  of  a  practicable  grade. 

This  American  organ  music  is  not  great,  nor  epoch 
making  in  its  new  pioneering  experiments,  but  it  should 
not  be  despised,  for  it  is  well  written,  artistic,  and  above 
all  practicable  and  useful  under  American  conditions. 
Give  the  organ  a  larger  place  in  our  musical  culture  and 
the  great  music  will  duly  appear. 


REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  What  was  the  character  of  the  music  played  on  the  ancient 
hydraulic  organ? 

2.  What  architectonic  impulse  affected  the  growth  of  organ 
music  and  how  ? 

3.  What  three  stages  did  organ  music  pass  through  in  its 
growth? 

4.  What  were  the  handicaps  of  the  earliest  organ  music 
composers? 

5.  Who  were  the  chief  representatives  of  the  bravura,  noisy 
school  ? 

6.  What  style  of  music  did  the  next  stage  of  organ  music 
reflect? 

7.  What  did  the  forms  of  organ  music  called  “  Ricercari,” 
“  Canzona  Francese”  and  “Toccata”  represent? 

8.  What  was  a  tablature? 

9.  What  noted  composers  in  the  sixteenth  century  contributed 
to  the  further  development  of  organ  music? 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OEGAN  MUSIC  437 


10.  With  whom  did  the  expressive  stage  of  organ  music 
begin  ? 

11.  Why  did  the  composition  of  organ  music  in  Italy  cease? 

12.  Who  represented  the  nerve-exciting  stage  in  Germany? 

13.  In  what  respects  was  Arnold  Schlick  an  advance  on  his 
predecessors? 

14.  What  was  the  notational  situation  in  Germany  during  the 
fifteenth  century? 

15.  What  Italian  influence  debased  German  organ  music  in 
the  latter  half  of  the  fifteenth  century? 

16.  What  influence  had  Johann  Woltz  of  Heilbronn? 

1 7.  What  new  element  did  the  German  Reformation  bring 
into  organ  music? 

18.  In  what  way  did  the  Lutheran  order  of  service  stimulate 
German  organ  music? 

19.  What  series  of  German  organ  composers  prepared  the 
way  for  Johann  Sebastian  Bach? 

20.  What  prominent  composers  do  we  find  in  southern 
Germany? 

21.  What  stage  of  organ  music  does  Muffat  represent? 

22.  In  whom  do  all  the  stages  blend? 

23.  Give  the  leading  facts  concerning  Bach  and  his  work? 

24.  Who  was  the  popular  successor  of  Bach? 

25.  Why  was  Bach  unappreciated  in  his  own  and  succeeding 
generations? 

26.  Who  was  prominent  as  an  organist  and  composer  in  the 
succeeding  generation? 

27.  Who  were  the  leading  German  organ  composers  of  the 
nineteenth  century? 

28.  Catalogue  the  leading  French  organ  music  composers  of 
the  eighteenth  and  nineteenth  century. 

29.  Why  did  not  organ  music  composing  flourish  in  England? 

30.  What  artistically  unfortunate  form  did  organ  music  take 
in  England  in  the  eighteenth  century? 

31.  Who  were  the  leading  organ  music  composers  of  England 
in  the  nineteenth  century? 

32.  What  American  composers  are  writing  creditable  organ 
voluntaries  for  church  use? 


XXXII 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 

Class  Room  Suggestions:  An  important  chapter  which  ought 
to  be  thoroughly  discussed  and  appropriated  by  the  students.  It 
may  be  well  to  bring  in  a  competent  organ  builder  to  enforce  and 
enlarge  upon  the  suggestions  and  warnings  here  given. 

Supplementary  Reading:  Clarke,  “  Outline  of  the  Structure  of 
the  Pipe  Organ,”  Ditson,  Boston;  Nicholson,  “Organ  Manual,” 
Ditson,  Boston. 

i.  The  Pastor  Needs  Knowledge  of  the  Pipe  Organ 

The  pastor  of  a  church  that  is  planning  to  purchase  a 
new  pipe  organ  ought  to  know  enough  about  the  building 
of  such  instruments  to  be  at  least  an  intelligent  adviser,  if 
not  the  leader  of  the  movement.  It  has  seemed  wise, 
therefore,  to  give  the  most  important  facts,  principles, 
and  warnings  involved,  leaving  the  pastor  who  desires  a 
more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  structure  of  this  most 
interesting  instrument  to  secure  some  general  treatise  on 
the  subject. 

2.  Depending  on  Organist  to  Manage  or  Advise 

The  church  that  has  as  an  organist  a  person  of  good 
musical  and  general  judgment,  who  has  had  a  wide  ex¬ 
perience  in  connection  with  the  planning  of  the  specifica¬ 
tions  of  pipe  organs,  who  has  the  necessary  knowledge  of 
their  materials  and  mechanical  construction,  who  is  per¬ 
sonally  interested  in  the  congregation  and  its  success,  and 
who  is  honest,  is  fortunate  indeed.  In  such  a  case,  the 
minister  need  exercise  only  a  sympathetic  general  super- 

438 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


439 


vision.  He  ought  by  all  means  to  exploit  the  opportunity 
of  learning  all  he  can  about  the  construction  of  the  in¬ 
strument;  he  may  have  sore  need  of  such  knowledge  in 
some  later  pastorate. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  his  organist  is  ignorant  of  organ 
construction,  or  is  full  of  notions  and  fads  incompatible 
with  the  true  musical  and  spiritual  interests  of  the 
church,  and  is  anxious  to  show  his  superior  knowledge 
by  suggesting  and  urging  some  fantastic  combinations,  he 
will  be  untrustworthy.  He  may  even  have  a  low  sense  of 
honour  and  exert  his  influence  in  favour  of  the  organ 
builder  who  will  allow  him  the  greatest  commission. 
That  the  congregation  really  pays  that  commission  in  in¬ 
ferior  work,  or  in  an  increased  price  of  the  organ,  hardly 
needs  to  be  emphasized. 

3.  Securing  an  Organ  Architect 

If  the  organist  is  not  prepared  to  plan  the  specifica¬ 
tions,  and  supervise  the  construction  of  the  proposed 
organ,  it  will  be  eminently  wise  to  secure  a  regular  organ 
architect,  who  for  a  specified  fee  will  plan  and  supervise 
the  manufacture,  erection  and  voicing  of  the  new  instru¬ 
ment.  Perhaps  in  most  cases  it  will  be  wise  to  secure 
such  an  architect  in  an  advisory  relation  at  least.  Even 
here  care  needs  to  be  taken,  for  some  of  these  organ 
architects  are  either  regularly  retained  by  some  organ 
builder,  or  are  partisanly  prejudiced  in  favour  of  some 
particular  firm. 

4.  The  Character  of  the  Builder  Very  Important 

In  perhaps  no  other  business  is  what  you  buy  so  de¬ 
pendent  on  the  skill,  judgment,  executive  ability  and 
honour  of  the  manufacturer.  The  record  of  the  pro¬ 
spective  builder  for  these  qualities  should  be  most  care- 


440 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


fully  investigated.  Better  allow  a  larger  price  for  a 
given  organ  to  the  firm  of  a  good  record  for  using  proper 
and  good  material,  for  doing  their  work  thoroughly  and 
well,  and  for  skill  in  securing  good  effects. 

As  an  organ  is  actually  built  to  order,  no  two  organs 
being  built  exactly  alike,  there  is  no  definite  scale  of 
prices.  Financial  comparisons  are  therefore  difficult. 
Much  of  the  work  is  of  so  technical  a  character,  and 
many  of  the  differences  in  effect  between  the  good  and 
the  bad  materials,  workmanship  and  voicing  are  so  be¬ 
yond  the  discrimination  of  the  average  musical  people, 
that  local  judgment  as  to  the  comparative  values  of  dif¬ 
ferent  makes  is  likely  to  be  based  on  prejudices  and 
notions,  rather  than  on  really  important  considerations. 

5.  Investigate  the  Different  Makes  Under 

Consideration 

It  will  be  wise  to  make  a  tour  of  investigation  among 
the  church  organs  in  a  radius  of  fifty  or  more  miles.  As 
far  as  possible  each  make  should  be  investigated  sepa¬ 
rately,  or  there  will  be  confusion  of  impression. 

(a)  The  Voicing.  Perhaps  the  most  immediate  item 
to  be  investigated  is  the  tone,  or  voicing.  The  Diapasons 
should  have  a  round,  full,  satisfying  organ  tone ;  the  string 
stops,  Viol  and  Gamba,  should  be  characteristic,  without 
being  too  stringy  and  muddy;  the  Trumpet  stops  should 
have  the  needed  aggressiveness,  the  Reeds  should  be 
smooth  and  musical,  with  well  defined  characteristics, 
and  so  on.  No  mere  amateur  can  pass  judgment  on  this 
important  phase  of  the  investigation. 

( h )  The  Workmanship.  Not  only  the  tone  of  each 
organ  should  be  considered,  but  careful  and  minute  in¬ 
quiry  should  be  made  regarding  its  reliability,  its  freedom 
from  irregularity  of  action,  its  susceptibility  to  differ* 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


441 


ences  of  temperature  and  humidity.  Discriminate  be¬ 
tween  the  organ  itself  and  the  motor.  Many  a  good 
organ  has  been  given  a  bad  name  because  its  electric  or 
water  motor  was  inefficient. 

Note  not  only  its  general  voicing,  but  its  correctness  of 
tune ;  learn  how  often  it  needs  to  be  retuned.  Mark  the 
pitch  and  quality  of  its  reed  stops, — Oboe,  Bassoon, 
Trumpet,  Vox  Humana,  etc.  In  order  to  be  just  to  these 
somewhat  unreliable  stops,  you  will  need  to  ask  when 
they  were  tuned  last,  and  to  notice  whether  the  tempera¬ 
ture  of  the  room  is  fairly  normal. 

If  a  competent  cabinet-maker  is  on  the  committee,  or 
accompanies  it,  let  him  carefully  examine,  not  only  the 
case,  but  the  inside  workmanship  as  well. 

(c)  The  Patents  Controlled  by  Builders.  It  will  be 
important  to  notice  the  patents  controlled  by  different 
organ  builders.  Some  of  them  have  special  features  of 
more  or  less  value  which  are  found  exclusively  in  their 
instruments.  Other  things  being  equal,  the  firm  con¬ 
trolling  the  most  valuable  recent  improvements  will  nat¬ 
urally  have  the  preference.  The  actual  value  of  such 
improvements  must  also  be  canvassed,  as  sometimes  the 
solicitors  for  organ  builders  make  a  talking  point  of 
alleged  improvements  whose  importance  is  more  seeming 
than  real. 

(d)  Quality  of  Action.  Hardly  second  to  the  voicing 
of  the  pipes  is  the  question  of  the  efficiency  of  the  par¬ 
ticular  action  used  by  each  of  the  competing  builders. 
It  will  be  a  question  of  promptness  of  response,  of  sim¬ 
plicity  and  of  reliability.  Not  all  Tracker  actions  are 
equally  prompt  or  easy  to  touch.  Not  all  Tubular-Pneu¬ 
matic  or  Electro-Pneumatic  actions  respond  with  equal 
facility.  Comparisons  in  regard  to  the  actions  of  the 
different  makes  investigated  will  be  helpful. 


442 


THE  PIPE  OEGAN 


6.  Provide  Full  Specifications 

There  should  be  the  same  care  used  in  preparing  plans, 
specifications  and  contract  for  the  organ,  that  is  exercised 
in  the  erection  of  the  church  edifice  itself.  Vaguely 
worded  specifications  are  frequently  agreed  to  by  guile¬ 
less  organ  committees  which  permit  abuses  and  “  just  as 
good  ”  cheap  substitutions  that  would  never  have  been 
allowed  if  properly  understood. 

See  to  it  that  the  specifications  give  not  only  the  stops 
and  mechanical  accessories,  but  the  number  of  pipes  in 
each  stop,  the  material  it  is  to  be  made  of,  whether  open 
or  stopped,  its  exact  scale  in  inches,  the  thickness  of  its 
materials,  whether  wood  or  metal. 

7.  Securing  Bids 

There  are  two  methods  of  securing  bids  from  organ 
builders:  (1)  to  decide  quite  exactly  the  specifications  of 
the  organ  you  wish,  determining  the  particular  stops  with 
their  respective  scales  and  the  accessories,  and  ask  for 
prices;  (2)  the  other  will  be  to  state  the  amount  you  are 
willing  to  spend  and  ask  them  to  offer  specifications  of 
the  organ,  adapted  to  your  space  and  needs,  they  are 
willing  to  build  for  that  money.  The  former  is  the  better 
way,  if  you  have  a  competent  architect.  The  latter  way 
will  give  you  the  benefit  of  the  builder’s  experience. 

Builders  are  of  various  classes.  There  are  high-grade, 
medium,  and  cheap.  There  is  usually  more  difference 
in  the  quality  of  the  work  done  between  the  cheap  and  the 
medium  than  there  is  between  the  medium  and  the  high- 
grade.  It  is  in  the  matter  of  the  most  recent  improve¬ 
ments  that  the  high-grade  builders  are  apt  to  have  the 
decided  advantage  over  the  medium-grade  builders. 

While  you  cannot  get  first-class,  skillful  work  done 


PUBCHASING  A  PIPE  OKGAN 


443 


for  little  money,  you  cannot  always  judge  of  the  quality 
of  an  instrument  by  the  price  the  maker  asks.  Some 
builders  can  build  more  cheaply  than  others,  because  they 
are  more  economical  in  their  general  management,  and 
can  get  more  and  even  better  work  out  of  their  employees. 
Others  take  advantage  of  a  reputation  based  on  some 
large  organ  built  for  a  very  public  place  to  demand  large 
profits.  Hence  the  mere  price  paid  should  not  be  too 
important  a  criterion  in  the  canvass  of  the  merits  of  any 
particular  make. 

There  will  be  an  astounding  difference  in  the  bids  re¬ 
ceived.  One  builder  will  offer  an  organ  of  twenty  stops 
for  the  same  price  that  another  will  ask  for  ten.  Need 
it  be  said  that  often  there  will  be  a  nearly  proportionate 
difference  in  the  quality  of  the  materials  and  of  the 
workmanship  ? 

Yet  there  is  something  to  be  said  in  behalf  of  the  cheap 
organ.  Where  there  is  little  culture  of  a  nice  and  fastid¬ 
ious  character  and  even  more  limited  financial  resources, 
and  where  the  size  of  the  congregation,  or  the  character 
of  its  work,  calls  for  a  large  instrument,  it  may  be  entirely 
wise  to  contract  for  the  larger  or  cheaper  instrument, 
provided  it  is  substantially  made.  Shoddy,  flimsy  con¬ 
struction,  that  will  not  hold  together  permanently,  is  dear 
at  any  price. 

8.  The  Location  of  the  Organ 

The  location  of  the  organ  should  be  wisely  and  care¬ 
fully  settled  by  the  church  architect  and  the  organ  archi¬ 
tect  before  the  church  edifice  is  built.  But  if  the  church 
is  already  built  and  the  matter  of  the  location  has  been 
practically  overlooked,  the  best  must  be  made  of  the 
existing  situation.  Happy  is  the  congregation,  the  archi¬ 
tect  of  whose  church  building  was  wise  enough  to  consult 


444 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


with  an  organ  architect  as  to  the  best  provision  of  space 
for  this  instrument  and  teachable  enough  to  take  good 
advice. 

The  day  of  the  choir  loft  in  the  rear  of  the  audience 
room  is  over  in  the  Protestant  churches  of  our  land. 
Shall  it  be  immediately  back  of  the  pulpit  or  on  one  or 
the  other  side  of  it?  That  depends  too  much  on  the  form 
and  plans  of  the  edifice  to  be  settled  here. 

(a)  Back  of  the  Pulpit.  The  space  back  of  the  pulpit 
has  much  to  recommend  it.  There  is  a  sense  of  unity 
and  concentration  in  the  forces  that  cooperate  in  the 
service.  The  music  is  given  worthy  recognition  as  on  a 
parity  with  the  sermon.  The  singers  face  the  congrega¬ 
tion  from  the  point  acoustically  most  advantageous  for 
the  music.  On  the  other  hand,  the  conspicuousness  of 
the  choir  magnifies  the  slight  informalities  of  attitude 
and  action  in  its  singers  in  a  distracting  and  sometimes 
exasperating  way.  What  is  worse,  few  architects  pro¬ 
vide  sufficient  space  for  the  organ,  chorus  choir,  and 
pulpit,  with  the  exceedingly  unfortunate  result  that  room 
is  found  only  for  that  modern  ecclesiastical  abomination, 
the  quartet  choir,  shutting  out  the  large  possibilities  of 
an  ample  chorus  forever. 

( h )  One  of  the  Sides.  There  is  much  to  be  said  in 
favour  of  one  of  the  sides.  For  one  thing,  the  organ  and 
choir  are  more  likely  to  be  given  sufficient  room.  The 
movements  of  the  choir  singers  are  less  conspicuous,  and 
less  likely  to  prove  a  distraction  to  people  with  small 
power  of  concentration  of  attention.  The  slight  change 
of  position  necessary  on  the  part  of  the  hearer  in  order 
to  face  the  singers  is  not  likely  to  prove  a  serious  objec¬ 
tion.  It  is  not  so  prolonged  as  in  liturgical  churches 
where  the  lectern  and  the  pulpit  are  at  either  side.  There 
may  be  architectural  and  acoustical  reasons  against  plac- 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


445 


ing  the  organ  at  one  side  or  the  other,  however,  and  those 
considerations  will  naturally  govern. 

(c)  Amount  of  Space .  An  even  more  important  point 
is  the  space  to  be  allotted.  Cramped  space  means  small 
wind-chest,  thus  crippling  the  power  of  the  instrument. 
It  also  means  putting  the  Swell  Organ  above  the  Great 
Organ.  As  the  former  will  be  affected  by  the  greater 
heat  of  the  upper  air,  it  will  be  out  of  tune  with  the  latter 
which  is  in  a  cooler  stratum  of  air.  Furthermore,  the 
parts  of  the  organ  will  be  so  crowded  together  as  to  be 
almost  inaccessible. 

Simply  as  a  vague,  general  suggestion,  modified  by  the 
quality  of  the  organ,  it  may  be  said  that  an  average  five 
thousand  dollar  organ  ought  to  have  a  space  equivalent 
to  fifteen  feet  long  and  ten  feet  wide  with  a  height  of 
twenty  feet.  An  average  ten  thousand  dollar  organ  calls 
for  a  space  equivalent  to  twenty  feet  long  and  fifteen 
feet  wide,  with  a  height  of  thirty-five  feet.  A  good  rule 
is  to  set  aside  for  the  organ  seven  per  cent,  of  the  floor 
space  of  the  auditorium. 

9.  Location  in  a  Recess 

It  is  quite  common  to  place  the  organ  in  a  recess.  If 
this  recess  is  sufficiently  large,  and  ample  in  height,  no 
harmful  effects  may  be  noticed. 

(a)  Recess  Reduces  Quantity  and  Quality  of  Tone. 
But  if  the  ceiling  is  close  to  the  organ,  and  particularly  if 
the  opening  into  the  main  room  above  the  organ  is  closed 
by  high  ornamental  pipes,  the  consequent  muffling  of  the 
tones  robs  the  instrument  both  of  its  brilliancy  and  of  its 
more  delicate  effects. 

The  closer  the  recess  enfolds  the  organ,  the  more  the 
tone  must  be  forced  in  order  to  secure  the  necessary 
power  and  brilliancy,  and  the  more  effectually  are  the 


446 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


delicate  effects  smothered.  In  such  a  case  one-third  of 
the  tone  is  lost.  The  higher  dissonant  harmonic  tones 
displace  the  lower  concordant  ones.1 

( b )  Recess  Seriously  Affects  the  Tuning.  As  the 
Swell  Organ  is  affected  by  the  heat  of  the  room  much 
more  slowly  than  the  more  exposed  Great  Organ,  another 
effect  of  a  recess  is  that  a  discord  is  caused  between  it  and 
the  flattened  Great  Organ  that  prevents  the  use  of  one  or 
the  other. 

( c )  Recess  Occasions  “ Carrying  Over ”  of  Swell 
Stops .  The  recess  also  leads  to  a  reflection,  or  “  carrying 
over,”  of  the  tone  of  the  Swell  Stops,  so  that  the  organist 
cannot  hear  his  soft  stops  at  all,  being  in  entire  silence, 
and  ignorant  of  the  effects  produced  where  the  congrega¬ 
tion  is  seated.  This  often  explains  the  “  over  accompany¬ 
ing  ”  of  many  organists  who  drown  out  the  soloist  with 
unduly  loud  registration. 

io.  The  Organ  Should  Be  Located  in  the 

Audience  Room 

While  the  muffling  effects  of  a  recess,  whether  open 
or  entirely  closed,  can  be  somewhat  neutralized  by  the 
adjusted  wind  pressure,  and  by  the  voicing,  in  general  it 
is  better  to  place  the  instrument  out  in  the  open  audience 
room.  Even  here  a  slanting  ceiling  will  produce  the  un¬ 
fortunate  “  carrying  over  ”  already  referred  to.  It  will 
be  more  brilliant  and  more  delicate  in  its  effects,  because 
the  wind  pressure  is  less  forced.  It  will  be  more  equable 
in  its  temperature  and  hence  less  likely  to  be  out  of  tune. 
It  is  less  likely  to  be  subject  to  dampness  and  to  the  con¬ 
sequent  unreliability  of  action,  and  to  the  rust  and  decom¬ 
position  of  delicate  materials.  Do  not  place  the  organ 

1  Rev.  Sir  Ousely,  the  great  English  organist,  called  the  organ 
recess  “  an  abomination  of  modern  invention.” 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


447 


diagonally  in  a  corner.  Space  is  wasted  and  a  vacant 
chamber  will  be  left  to  accumulate  dust  and  dirt  and 
harbour  mice. 

ii.  Preparing  the  Foundation  of  the  Organ 

Once  the  location  has  been  settled  upon,  there  should 
be  a  careful  examination  of  the  foundations.  A  pipe 
organ  with  its  hundreds  of  metal  pipes,  large  and  small, 
weighs  a  number  of  tons,  and  if  there  is  any  weakness  in 
the  support,  it  will  soon  become  manifest  in  an  irregular 
settling  that  will  play  havoc  with  the  mechanism  of  the 
instrument.  A  damp  cellar,  just  below  the  floor  on  which 
the  organ  rests,  should  be  guarded  against  by  providing 
an  air  space  between  the  floor  and  the  organ. 

12.  Selection  of  the  Type  of  Action 

After  the  location  and  the  space  to  be  allotted  to  the 
organ  have  been  agreed  upon,  the  question  of  the  kind  of 
action  to  be  selected  rises  for  answer.  The  action  is  the 
mechanism  used  to  connect  the  keyboard  with  the  valves 
of  the  pipes.  There  are  three  general  types  of  action, — 
the  purely  mechanical  Tracker,  the  Tubular- Pneumatic, 
and  the  Electro-Pneumatic. 

(a)  The  Tracker  Action.  The  Tracker  Action  is 
fairly  satisfactory  for  small  organs.  In  a  large  organ 
the  touch  becomes  too  hard  and  fatiguing.  It  is  not  as 
prompt  in  response  as  the  other  types  of  action.  It  will 
not  allow  the  variety  of  couplers  the  other  actions  permit; 
its  limit  is  four  couplers,  Swell  to  Great,  Swell  to  Pedal, 
Great  to  Pedal,  and  Swell  superoctave  to  Swell.  It  is 
quite  susceptible  to  dampness,  whether  due  to  location 
or  to  weather,  which  affects  both  touch  and  action.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Tracker  Action  is  much  cheaper  than 


448 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


the  others  and  requires  less  skillful  workmen  to  make 
temporary  repairs. 

( b )  The  Tubular-Pneumatic  Action.  The  Tubular- 
Pneumatic  Action  has  the  advantage  of  the  Tracker 
Action  in  being  quicker  in  its  reply,  and  in  permitting  an 
indefinite  number  of  couplers  and  combinations,  without 
in  the  least  affecting  the  touch.  This  latter  consideration 
alone  is  worth  its  extra  cost,  as  by  these  couplers  the  re¬ 
sources  and  power  of  the  organ  may  be  indefinitely 
multiplied.  Its  touch  is  not  susceptible  to  atmospheric 
conditions.  Its  limitations,  as  compared  with  the  Electro- 
Pneumatic  Action,  are  that  a  separate  keyboard  or  con¬ 
sole,  often  desirable,  is  immovable,  and  that  the  further 
it  is  placed  from  the  instrument  the  slower  will  be  the 
response. 

( c )  The  Electro-Pneumatic  Action.  The  Electro- 
Pneumatic  Action  is  the  most  expensive,  but  in  addition 
to  all  the  advantages  of  the  Tubular-Pneumatic  Action, 
it  is  quicker  in  a  responsiveness  unchanged  at  any  dis¬ 
tance,  and  permits  a  movable  console  which  is  con¬ 
nected  with  the  organ  only  by  a  cable  of  wires. 

The  excellent  features  in  these  two  latter  types  of 
action  are  somewhat  discounted  by  the  fact  that,  if  any 
irregularity  of  action  or  accident  occurs,  it  will  probably 
be  so  obscure,  or  so  technical,  as  to  require  a  skilled 
organ  mechanic  who  is  not  always  at  hand.  This  will 
be  likely  to  cause  delay  and  heavy  expense. 

13.  Selecting  the  Stops 

Conditions  and  tastes  vary  too  greatly  that  space 
should  be  given  to  sets  of  specifications  to  be  adopted  as 
they  stand.  It  is  more  helpful  to  give  a  few  hints  as  to 
the  relative  importance  and  usefulness  of  the  more  usual 
stops  and  mechanical  accessories. 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


449 


The  number  and  choice  of  stops  must  depend  not  only 
on  the  depth  of  the  purse  of  the  congregation,  but  on  its 
size  and  its  heartiness  of  participation  in  the  song  service, 
and  particularly  on  the  size  of  the  audience  room.  To  get 
an  organ  more  powerful  than  a  room  will  bear  is  to  put 
into  the  hands  of  a  possibly  ignorant,  irresponsible  organ¬ 
ist  the  power  to  torture  a  helpless  congregation.  Some 
people  think  it  is  better  to  have  an  organ  below  than 
above  the  capacity  of  the  room,  but  most  will  prefer  to 
have  it  exceed,  as  a  reserve  for  emergencies. 

(a)  Indispensable  Stops  for  the  Great  Organ.  In 
planning  the  Great  Organ,  the  Open  Diapason  must  come 
first.  This  is  indispensable,  no  matter  what  the  size  of 
the  organ.  Next  indispensable  to  this  eight-foot  stop  is 
its  octave,  a  four-foot  stop  called  Principal.  These  two 
stops  have  the  same  diapason  quality.  The  latter  may 
be  replaced  by  the  Gemshorn,  a  somewhat  lighter  four- 
foot  stop  with  a  sympathetic  flute  tone  which  adapts  it  to 
solo  uses. 

Another  valuable  eight-foot  stop  for  the  Great  Organ 
is  the  Dulciana,  occasionally  termed  the  “  Sleepy  Di¬ 
apason  ”  because  of  its  slow  response.  It  has  a  beauti¬ 
fully  gentle  and  delicate  quality  of  tone,  adapting  it  for 
accompaniment  to  solo  Swell  stops,  or  as  a  solo  stop. 

Another  desirable  eight-foot  stop  for  the  Great  Organ 
is  the  Melodia  which  has  a  clear  and  horn-like  tone.  It  is 
a  stop  of  medium  power,  often  useful  when  the  Open 
Diapason  is  too  strong.  This  stop  is  often  replaced  by 
the  Doppel  Floete,  an  eight-foot  stop  of  more  body  of 
tone,  that  is  equally  effective  as  a  solo  stop  or  in  combina¬ 
tion. 

w  Additional  Stops  for  Great  Organ.  If  a  larger 
instrument  is  needed,  other  stops  may  be  added,  which 
are  suggested  in  the  order  of  their  relative  value.  The 


450 


THE  PIPE  OKGAN 


Gamba  is  a  very  stringy-toned  eight-foot  stop  of  pro¬ 
nounced  timbre  or  colour.  It  gives  incisiveness  to  the  full 
organ  and  can  be  used  with  good  effect  as  a  solo  stop. 
The  Fifteenth  is  a  two-foot  stop  that  adds  a  piercing, 
brilliant  quality  to  the  full  organ. 

A  four-foot  stop  useful  for  solo  work  is  the  Flute 
d’ Amour,  which  has  a  very  lovely  tone.  If  peculiar  shrill¬ 
ness  and  brilliance  of  tone  is  desired  in  the  full  organ  the 
Twelfth,  a  three-foot  stop,  and  three  ranks  of  Mixtures 
may  be  added.  Where  it  can  be  properly  taken  care  of, 
the  Trumpet,  an  eight-foot  reed  stop,  will  be  desirable, 
both  in  combination  and  as  a  powerful  solo  stop.  A 
second  Open  Diapason  of  smaller  scale  (i.  e.,  of  smaller 
diameter)  will  often  prove  useful.  In  very  large  organs 
the  Double  Open  Diapason,  a  sixteen-foot  stop,  is  fre¬ 
quently  used,  adding  great  majesty,  dignity,  and  power 
to  the  tone  of  the  full  organ.  An  organ  of  this  size  will 
need  a  few  more  solo  stops  of  varying  tone  colour  such 
as  Viol  d’Amour,  Clarabella,  Philomela,  Wald  Floete, 
etc. 

( c )  Indispensable  Stops  for  Swell  Organ.  There  are 
three  stops  that  are  essential, — Salicional,  Stopped  Di¬ 
apason,  and  ^Eoline.  The  Salicional  is  an  eight-foot  open 
stop  with  a  stringy,  almost  reedy,  quality  of  tone.  The 
Stopped  Diapason  is  a  four-foot  wooden  pipe  which  is 
given  an  eight-foot  tone  by  closing  or  “  stopping  ”  the 
ends  of  the  pipes.  This  soft,  mellow  stop  is  very  useful 
both  as  a  solo  stop  and  in  combination.  The  ^Eoline  is 
the  softest  stop  in  the  organ,  on  which  the  organist  must 
depend  for  his  most  delicate  effects. 

( d )  Additional  Stops  for  the  Swell  Organ.  Perhaps 
next  in  importance  come  the  Violin  Diapason,  and  Open 
Diapason  of  small  scale,  with  great  smoothness  of  tone 
and  a  slightly  stringy  quality.  A  very  desirable  stop  for 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


451 


solo  use  is  the  Vox  Celeste,  an  eight-foot  stop  with  double 
pipes,  usually  sounding  in  combination  with  either  the 
^Eoline  or  the  Salicional,  the  former  to  be  preferred  be¬ 
cause  of  its  superior  delicacy  and  daintiness. 

The  two-foot  Flautino  is  very  charming  and  sweet, 
giving  a  graceful  effect  to  soft  combinations.  The 
whispering  effect  it  produces  with  Swell  Bourdon  is  very 
striking.  Bourdon  is  practically  a  sixteen- foot  Stopped 
Diapason.  It  has  a  dignity  and  a  mellowness  of  tone 
that  fits  it  for  occasions  of  great  solemnity.  The  Flute 
Harmonique,  which  has  a  bright  silvery  tone,  is  a  four- 
foot  stop  that  is  admirable  for  solo  purposes  and  in 
combination. 

The  Swell  Organ  will  be  the  richer  for  having  in 
addition  to  the  above  several  reed  stops,  provided  there 
is  a  competent  tuner  either  in  the  community  or  within 
reach  to  keep  them  in  order.  The  Oboe,  either  as  a  single 
stop  running  through  the  whole  range  of  the  organ,  or 
divided  into  two  stops,  Oboe  and  Bassoon,  is  an  eight-foot 
stop  of  striking  tone  colour.  The  less  frequent  Vox 
Humana,  if  rightly  voiced  and  under  competent  super¬ 
vision,  and  if  not  used  too  frequently,  is  an  exquisitely 
beautiful  stop.  It  is  a  luxury,  and  not  at  all  appropriate 
in  a  small  organ.  The  same  may  practically  be  said  of 
the  Vox  Angelica,  which,  by  the  way,  is  not  a  reed  stop. 

( e )  Stops  for  the  Pedal  Organ.  The  number  of  stops 
in  the  Pedal  Organ  will  depend  on  the  number  of  stops 
and  couplers  in  the  Great  and  Swell  Organs  which  it  is 
to  support.  An  organ  of  less  than  ten  stops  ought  to 
have  only  a  sixteen-foot  Bourdon.  Softer  pedal  effects 
can  be  provided  for  by  means  of  couplers  to  Swell  and 
Great  Organs,  although  Lieblich  Gedackt,  an  eight-foot 
stop  of  quiet  tone,  is  often  used  for  this  purpose. 

If  there  are  ten  or  more  stops,  and  many  couplers, 


462 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


“  sub  ”  and  “  super/’  the  Pedal  Organ  should  include  the 
massive  sixteen-foot  Open  Diapason.  Only  for  a  very 
large  auditorium  and  an  unusually  large  organ  will  there 
be  any  call  for  the  Double  Open  Diapason,  a  thirty-two- 
foot  stop  of  overwhelming  majesty  and  grandeur.  Be¬ 
fore  this  stop  becomes  necessary  there  will  be  room  for 
the  Violone  or  the  Violoncello,  softer-voiced  stops  with 
the  quality  of  the  lowest  stringed  instruments. 

14.  Selecting  the  Accessory  Stops 

(a)  Selecting  the  Couplers.  Special  attention  should 
be  given  to  the  couplers.  Swell  to  Great,  Swell  to  Pedal, 
Great  to  Pedal,  Swell  superoctave  to  Swell,  Swell  sub¬ 
octave  to  Swell,  Swell  superoctave  to  Great,  Swell  sub¬ 
octave  to  Great,  are  all  well-nigh  indispensable. 

Where  great  power  is  demanded,  Great  superoctave 
to  Great,  Great  suboctave  to  Great  and  Pedal  super¬ 
octave  to  Pedal  will  be  desirable.  These  couplers  should 
be  controlled  by  tablets  wherever  possible.  It  is  well  to 
add  seven  to  twelve  more  pipes  to  the  upper  part  of  all 
Swell  stops  than  appear  on  the  manual,  in  order  to  make 
the  superoctave  coupler  effective  in  the  higher  notes. 

( h )  Selecting  the  Combination  Pistons.  Then  there 
are  Combination  Pistons  which  bring  on  certain  fixed  or 
variable  combinations  of  stops,  which  are  occasionally 
convenient,  although  by  no  means  as  important  as  the 
couplers. 

(c)  Selecting  Pedal  Accessories.  There  are  several 
pedal  mechanisms  that  are  essential:  the  Balanced  Swell 
Pedal  which  controls  the  Swell  Box;  the  Full  Organ 
Pedal  which  makes  every  stop  and  coupler  immediately 
effective;  the  Grand  Crescendo  Pedal  which  gradually 
brings  on  the  stops  from  the  softest  to  the  Full  Organ 
and  vice  versa .  Then  there  are  Combination  Pedals 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


453 


which  may  take  the  place  of  the  Combination  Pistons,  or 
be  added  to  them,  so  furnishing  greater  variety. 

Every  organ  should  also  have  a  Tremolo.  While  an 
organist  of  tawdry  taste  will  abuse  it,  there  are  times 
when  it  is  so  essential  to  the  musical  effect  that  its  mis¬ 
use  must  be  endured. 

15.  Checking  up  the  Specifications 

It  would  take  a  technical  volume  to  enter  into  the  de¬ 
tails  of  all  the  points  that  need  to  be  carefully  guarded 
and  checked  up.  The  usual  practices  to  be  guarded 
against  are:  1st,  the  use  of  half  length  stopped  pipes  in 
place  of  full  length  open  pipes  in  the  lower  twelve  notes ; 
2d,  the  substitution  of  wood  for  metal  in  the  lower  twelve 
notes  of  stops  that  ought  to  be  made  of  metal  through¬ 
out;  3d,  the  use  of  cheap  soft  woods  or  even  of  good 
wood  of  insufficient  thickness;  4th,  the  use  of  cheap  metal 
for  the  pipes. 

(a)  Points  of  Danger  in  the  Great  Organ.  See  that 
your  Open  Diapason  and  Dulciana  pipes  are  full  scale, 
all  metal  and  all  open.  It  is  a  very  common  trick  to  put 
into  the  specifications  metal  and  wood.  The  lower 
twelve  notes  are  then  made  of  wood  and  stopped  at  that, 
robbing  the  tone  of  its  strength  and  roundness. 

( b )  Points  to  he  Watched  in  the  Swell  Organ.  The 
same  is  even  more  true  of  Violin  Diapason  or  Swell  Open 
Diapason,  as  the  half  length  stopped  pipes  allow  a  much 
smaller  and  less  expensive  swell-box. 

It  often  happens  that  the  lower  twelve  pipes  of  the 
Open  or  Violin  Diapason  in  the  Swell  serve  for  the  Sali- 
cional  as  well,  saving  the  builder  the  expense  of  twelve 
large  pipes.  When  both  stops  are  drawn,  the  bass  is 
weaker  for  the  missing  pipes.  In  all  these  cases  insist 
on  having  sixty-one  open  metal  pipes  in  the  specification 


454 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


and  in  the  organ  as  well.  Mark  well  the  four  words, 
sixty-one,  open,  metal,  and  pipes  (not  notes).  The  Flute 
Harmonique  is  an  all  metal  stop, — sixty-one  open  pipes. 

See  that  the  Salicional  is  specified  sixty-one  open  metal 
pipes,  or  a  builder  whose  sense  of  honour  has  a  coarse 
grain  will  use  a  short  pipe  with  a  metal  cap.  This  will 
sound  the  fifth  quite  prominently  and  offensively. 

The  Stopped  Diapasons  are  made  of  wood,  preferably 
spruce.  Poplar  is  frequently  used  by  fairly  good  build¬ 
ers,  but  it  is  a  softer  and  less  resonant  wood.  Bass¬ 
wood  should  never  be  permitted.  The  heavier  the  wood, 
within  reasonable  bounds,  the  richer  the  tones.  The 
larger  pipes  should  not  be  made  of  less  than  inch  stuff 
and  will  be  all  the  better  for  being  three-sixteenths  of  an 
inch  thicker, — smaller  pipes  somewhat  in  proportion. 

When  Bourdon  pipes  have  a  small  scale  they  give  a 
light  tone  and  sound  the  twelfth  quite  perceptibly.  In 
a  Vox  Celeste  forty-nine  pipes  are  all  that  are  needed; 
but  do  not  permit  the  lower  octave — twelve  notes — to  be 
dropped  out  of  the  Oboe.  The  octave  below  tenor  or 
middle  C  costs  the  builder  as  much  as  all  the  rest  of  the 
notes  of  the  stop  put  together;  hence  his  desire  to  stop 
at  this  point. 

In  general  be  suspicious  when  you  see  the  word 
“  notes  ”  substituted  for  “  pipes  ”  in  the  specifications ; 
that  is  prima  facie  evidence  of  intended  substitution  of 
one  kind  or  another. 

(c)  Substitution  in  Pedal  Organ.  Another  trick  to  be 
guarded  against  is  to  specify  two  pedal  stops,  Bourdon 
and  Lieblich  Gedackt,  and  then  to  furnish  only  a  single 
set  of  pipes.  If  either  is  then  used  separately,  the  only 
harm  that  will  be  done  is  that  the  Lieblich  Gedackt  is 
slightly  out  of  tune;  but  when  you  wish  to  use  both,  the 
Lieblich  Gedackt  is  entirely  absent. 


PURCHASING  A  PIPE  ORGAN 


455 


( d )  Weak  Point  in  Bellows.  See  that  the  Bellows  are 
strong  enough,  have  an  ample  wind-box  below,  have  one 
set  of  reversed  folds,  and  are  supplied  with  three  feeders. 
The  bellows  should  be  double  leathered  inside  and  out 
with  the  best  alum-tanned  sheepskin.  Remember,  the 
more  couplers  you  have,  the  larger  the  bellows  must  be ; 
but  large  bellows  spell  large  space,  and  for  a  good  organ 
that  must  be  provided. 

In  good  actions  you  have  an  individual  supply  of  wind 
for  every  pipe;  otherwise  invariably  correct  tune  will  be 
out  of  the  question. 

(e)  Important  Points  in  Action.  In  the  Tubular- 
Pneumatic  and  Electro-Pneumatic  actions  it  is  important 
that  only  the  best  quality  of  pneumatic  leather  be  used, 
not  varnished  dress-lining,  nor  rubber-lined  cloth.  An 
Electro-Pneumatic  action  should  have  self-cleaning  con¬ 
tacts,  with  sliding  contacts  for  couplers. 

(/)  Care  in  the  Voicing.  Regarding  the  voicing,  the 
larger  part  of  the  work  should  be  done  after  the  organ 
is  in  position  in  the  room  where  it  is  to  be  used,  in  order 
that  the  peremptorily  needed  adaptation  of  the  instrument 
to  the  acoustical  character  of  the  room  be  secured.  This 
is  lost  if  the  voicing  is  done  at  the  factory. 

There  has  been  no  purpose,  much  less  effort,  to  be  ex¬ 
haustive  in  these  hints  on  organ  building.  Many  im¬ 
portant  matters  have  been  omitted. 

The  warnings  given  are  simply  suggestive  of  the  need 
of  careful  supervision  of  both  the  specifications  and  the 
construction.  They  will  have  done  their  best  service  if 
they  lead  the  minister  and  his  organ  committee  to  secure 
the  advice  and  supervision  of  a  competent  and  reliable 
organ  architect,  even  though  the  instrument  they  propose 
to  secure  be  only  small  or  medium  sized. 

Indeed,  little  suggestion  has  been  given  for  more  than 


456 


THE  PIPE  ORGAN 


a  medium  sized  organ  of  two  manuals.  Churches  which 
desire  a  large  organ  presumably  are  wise  enough  to 
secure  competent  professional  help  in  planning  and 
supervising  so  important  a  project. 

REVIEW  QUESTIONS 

1.  Who  ought  to  be  the  leader  in  the  purchase  of  the  pipe 
organ  ? 

2.  When  may  a  church  depend  on  its  organist  for  the  needed 
leadership  or  counsel? 

3.  Who  should  be  secured  in  case  the  church  has  no  one 
qualified  to  supervise  the  purchase  wisely? 

4.  Why  is  the  character  of  the  organ  builder  important? 

5.  Suggest  the  lines  of  needed  investigation. 

6.  On  what  basis  should  the  contract  be  let? 

7.  What  need  is  there  of  clear  and  precise  specifications? 

8.  Where  should  the  organ  be  located? 

9.  How  much  space  should  be  allowed  for  it? 

10.  Why  should  it  not  be  placed  in  a  recess? 

11.  What  preparation  should  be  made  for  its  foundation? 

12.  State  the  advantages  of  the  three  types  of  action. 

13.  What  are  the  indispensable  stops  of  the  Great  Organ? 

14.  What  stops  may  be  added? 

15.  What  are  the  essential  stops  of  the  Swell  Organ? 

16.  What  additional  stops  are  recommended? 

17.  Give  the  stops  needful  in  the  Pedal  Organ. 

18.  What  couplers  and  other  accessories  are  needed? 

19.  What  points  in  the  specifications  need  to  be  guarded? 


Index 


A 

Abbey,  A.  J.,  337 
Ackley,  W.  D.,  351 
Action,  Quality  of  in  organ, 
441 

Types  of — in  organ,  447 
Adams,  Carrie  B.,  363,  381 
Adaptation,  Value  of,  152 
Adapting  church  music,  151 
Adapting  music,  Need  of,  141 
Adapt  music,  How  to,  142 
Ahle,  Johann  Rudolph,  265 
Ainsworth’s  Psalter,  293 
Allen,  Chester  G.,  332 
Ambrose,  Paul,  363 
Ambrosian  reforms,  223 
American  hymn  tune,  Charac¬ 
teristics  of,  312 

American  psalm  tune  compos¬ 
ers,  297 

Anerio,  249,  357 
Anthem,  American,  361 
Anthem,  Development  of,  358 
Anthem,  Etymology  of,  354 
Antiphonal  music  among  He¬ 
brews,  209 

Antiphonal  singing  among  early 
Christians,  221 
Apostolic  age,  Music  in,  213 
Appeal  of  instrumental  music, 
4T9 

Applied  art,  Music  as,  148 
Applied  art,  Music  originally, 

185 

Arcadelt,  249,  356,  357 
Archer,  Frederick,  435 
Arentino,  Guido,  238 
Artistic  impulse,  Abuse  of,  247 
Artistic  musical  impulse,  179 
Artistic  music,  Growth  of,  247 
Artistic  responsiveness,  De¬ 
veloping,  38 

Art,  Pure  vs.  applied,  147 


Art  vs.  morals,  139 
Ashford,  Mrs.  E.  E.,  363,  381, 
436 

Associated  ideas,  130 
Incongruities  of,  132 
Prejudice  due  to,  132 
Assyrians,  Music  among,  192 
Attwood,  361 

B 

Bach,  Care  Phieip  E.,  373 
Bach,  Johann  C.,  358 
Bach,  Johann  Sebastian,  243, 
.  261,  358,  370,  428,  432 
Bailey,  Daniel,  296,  297,  301 
Baker,  B.  F.,  306,  310 
Baker,  Henry  Williams,  288 
Baltzell,  Isaiah,  339 
“Barcarolle”  by  Offenbach, 
109 

Bamby,  Joseph,  289,  31 1,  361 
Barnes,  Edward  S.,  436 
Bartholomew,  1 12,  121 
Battishill,  361 
Bay  Psalm  Book,  293 
Beauty  vs.  religion,  139 
Beethoven,  Ludwig  von,  128, 
374 

Beethoven’s  “Fifth  Symphony,” 
39 

Bellows  in  pipe  organ,  398 
Bellows,  Problem  of,  409 
Benedicte,  The,  221 
Benedictus,  221 
Bennett,  William  Sterndale, 
378 

Berlioz,  Hector,  380 
Berridge,  Arthur,  379 
Berwald,  W.,  363 
Best,  Wm.  Thos.,  435 
Beveridge,  Bishop,  32 
Bible,  Music  in  the,  35 
Billings,  William,  113,  298 


458 


INDEX 


Billroth,  1 13 
Binchois,  355 
Black,  J.  M.,  338 
Blind  Tom,  106 
Bliss,  Paul,  363 
Bliss,  P.  P.,  306,  337,  346 
Blow,  360 

Blowers  in  organ,  398 
Bourgeois,  Louis,  263 
Boyce,  William,  287,  361 
Bradbury,  William  B.,  310,  31 1, 
328,  329,  331,  345,  362,  381 
Brasert,  Floy,  355 
Bravura  school,  421 
Bridgman,  Laura,  104 
Bridgewater  Collection,  304 
Bruch,  Max,  376 
Brumel,  356 
Buck,  Dudley,  362,  379 
Bull,  433 

Burney,  Chas.,  287 
Buxtehude,  Dietrich,  369,  427, 
432 

Byrd,  357,  359,  433 
Byron,  139 

c 

Caldara,  368 
Callcott,  John  Wall,  287 
Calcott,  William  H.,  287 
Calvin’s  attitude  toward  music, 
262 

Cantata  in  America,  381 
In  England,  379 
Cantus  firmus,  243,  250 
Canzona  Francese,  422 
Carey,  Henry,  287 
Caricaturing  gospel  songs,  158 
Case,  C.  C.,  306,  363 
Cassel,  Rev.  E.  T.  and  Flora 
H-,  350 
Cavalieri,  367 
Cave,  Dr.,  279 
Chadwick,  Geo.  W.,  363,  380 
Charpentier,  Marc  Antoine,  380 
Cherubim,  358 
Choir  organ,  389 
Chorale,  Development  of,  264 
Chrysostom,  136 
“  Churchly  ”  music,  150 


Church  work,  Music  in,  149,  161 
Ciphering,  400 
Clarke,  Jeremiah,  360 
Clefs  in  music,  84 
Cole,  Thomas,  284 
Colonna,  368 
Colorato,  421,  426 
Combination  pistons,  452 
Common  people,  Considering, 
23 

Compere,  Loyset,  356 
Concords,  80 
Congregational  singing : 
Decadence  in,  294 
Reforms  in,  295 
Console  of  pipe  organ,  386 
Chords,  Major,  minor,  etc.,  81 
Costa,  Michael,  378 
Cotton,  Rev.  John,  293 
Counterpoint,  243,  253 
Couplers,  Selecting,  452 
Coverdale,  Miles,  271 
Cowen,  F.  H.,  379 
Cowley,  Robert,  272 
Cranmer’s  rule,  277 
Crispin’s  Psalter,  273 
Croce,  249,  357 
Croft,  360 
Crosby,  Fanny,  334 
Crotch,  William,  378 
Criiger,  Johann,  265 
Curwen,  Dr.  J.  S.,  151 
Cutler,  Henry  S.,  311 
Cuyler,  Theo.  L.,  7 

D 

Dance,  Development  of,  183 
Danks,  H.  P.,  363 
Darnton,  Chas.,  379 
Darwall,  John,  287 
Darwin  on  origin  of  music,  176 
Daye’s  Psalter,  273,  274 
Decadence  in  congregational 
singing,  294 

de  Giardini,  Felice,  287 
Demoralizing,  Music  may  be, 
140 

des  Pres,  Josquin,  249,  355,  356 
Diapason  tone  in  organ,  397 
Diaphony,  237 


INDEX 


459 


di  Bologna,  Marco  Antonio, 
421 

Dickinson,  Clarence,  436 
Dickinson,  Dr.  Edward,  167, 
217 

di  Lasso,  Orlando,  357,  359 
di  Rore,  357 
Diruta,  Girolamo,  423 
Discant,  241 

Discords,  Importance  of,  80 
Discords,  Musical  effect  of,  117 
Distress  caused  by  music,  144 
Doane,  W.  Howard,  333,  334, 
345,  363 

Drawstop  action,  391 
Dubois,  Francois,  432 
Dufay,  355 
Dunstable,  355 
Duty  of  praise,  34 
Dvorak,  Antonin  K.,  317,  376 
Dykes,  John  B.,  288,  289,  31 1 

E 

Earliest  English  church  music, 
269 

Early  church  organs,  405 
Eccard,  Johann,  264 
Edson,  Lewis,  284 
Edwards,  Jonathan,  29 
Effects  of  music: 

Immediate,  112 
In  major,  114 
In  minor,  115 

On  animals  and  children,  106 
On  nervous  tension,  113 
On  sensory  nervous  system, 
104 

Physical,  105,  163 
Physical  basis  of,  103 
Through  discords,  117 
Through  force,  119 
Through  pitch,  118 
Through  rhythm,  117 
Through  quality  of  tone,  119 
Egyptians,  Music  among  the, 
189 

Electro-pneumatic  action,  391, 
448 

Elgar,  Sir  Edward,  378 
Eliot,  294  295 


Elvey,  Ceorge  Job,  289 
Emerson,  L.  O.,  306,  309,  310, 
337,  362 

Emotional  appeal  of  music,  189 
Emotionality  of  music,  107 
Emotional  preparation  through 
music,  165 

Emotional  power  of  music,  40 
Emotions : 

Agreeable  and  disagreeable, 
122 

And  the  nerves,  122,  123 
Complexity  of,  123 
Expressing  all  religious,  155 
Intensified  through  music, 
166 

Social-religious,  157 
Substitution  of,  169 
Translated  into  music,  127 
Variety  of  worshipful,  156 
Episcopal  Church  on  music,  33 
Erlkonig,  116 
Estes’  Psalter,  274 
Evangelistic  campaigns,  Songs 
of,  new,  349 
Excell,  E.  O.,  350 
Expression,  Notation  of,  91 

F 

Faber,  Nicholas,  41  i 
Faugues,  355 
Fearis,  John  S.,  363,  381 
Festa,  Costanza,  357 
Fillmore,  J.  H.,  339 
Fischer,  Wm.  G.,  335,  344 
Flagg,  Josiah,  296 
Florid  School,  Hymn  tunes  of 
the,  284,  285,  286,  287 
Flue  pipes  m  organ,  391 
Flute  tone  in  organ,  397 
Folk  music,  German,  254 
Foote,  Arthur,  363,  436 
Force,  Musical  effect  of,  119 
Force,  Notation  of,  92 
Form,  Musical,  79 
Form,  Notation  of,  93 
Foster,  Stephen  C.,  317 
Foundation  for  organ,  447 
Franck,  Caesar  A.,  380,  432 
Frescobaldi,  Girolomo,  423 


460 


INDEX 


Frohberger,  Johann  Jacob,  428 
Fugue  tunes,  Rise  of,  284 

G 

GadE,  Wieheem  Niees,  376 
Gabriel,  Chas.  H.,  339,  350,  351, 

363 

Gabrielli,  Andrea,  249,  357,  423 
Gabrielli,  Giovanni,  249,  357, 
423 

Garrett,  G.,  379 
Gaul,  Alfred  R.,  379 
Gauntlett,  Henry  John,  287, 
415 

Geibel,  Adam,  340,  349 
Genevan  Psalter,  263 
German  tunes  still  in  use,  266 
Germany,  Early  church  music 
in,  254 

Gibbons,  Orlando,  359,  433 
Gloria  in  Excelsis,  220 
Gloria  Patri,  220 
Golden  age  of  polyphonic 
church  music,  359 
Gospel  Song,  31 1,  328 
Offspring  of  the  Spiritual, 
343 

Originators  of  the,  344 
Rise  of  the,  338 
What  is  a,  342 

Gospel  Songs,  Change  in  style 
of,  348 

“  Gospel  Hymns,”  Origin  of 
series  of,  347 
Goss,  Sir  John,  287,  361 
Gottschalk,  1 12 
Goudimel,  248,  357 
Gould,  J.  E.,  311,  337. 

Gounod,  Chas.  Francois,  380 
Grannis,  S.  M.,  344 
Graun,  Heinrich,  358,  372,  423 
Great  Awakening,  The,  303 
Great  compositions,  Study  of, 
48 

Great  organ,  387 
Great  organ,  Stops  for,  449 
Green,  Maurice,  361 
Greek  influence  on  Christian 
music,  214 

Greek  modes,  The,  197 


Greek  modes  in  Christian 
Church,  219 
Greek  scale,  The,  197 
Greeks,  Music  among  the,  193 
Gregorian  chant,  228,  246 
Gregorian  liturgy,  Spread  of, 
234 

Gregorian  reforms,  225 
Gregorian  scales,  227 
Gregory  the  Great,  30,  225 
Guido  Arentino,  233,  238 
Guilmant,  Felix  A.,  432 
Gurney,  Edward,  103,  108,  144 

H 

Haee,  J.  Eincoen,  340,  349, 
363 

Hanby,  Rev.  B.  R.,  317,  336 
Handel  and  Haydn  Society,  304, 
308 

Handel,  Geo.  Fr.,  358,  371,  376 
Harmony,  What  is,  80 
Hartsough,  Louis,  343 
Hasse,  Johann  Adolph,  358, 
373 

Hassler,  Hans  Leo,  264,  423, 

427 

Hastings,  Thomas,  306,  315,  328 
Havergal,  William  Henry,  274, 
287 

Hawley,  C.  W.,  363 
Haydn,  Franz  Joseph,  358,  373 
Hayes,  361 

Hebrew  music,  Character  of, 
207 

Helmholtz,  Herm.  L.  F.,  62, 
100,  108 

Herbart,  J.  F.,  100 
Herbert,  J.  B.,  363 
Heretical  hymns,  222 
Hexachord,  238 
Heyser,  E.  K.,  363,  381 
Hiles,  Henry,  379 
Hintersatz  in  pipe  organ,  41 1 
History  of  church  music,  Value 
of,  36 

History  of  music,  48 
Hoffman,  Rev.  E.  A.,  337 
Hofheimer,  425 
Holden,  Oliver,  301 


INDEX 


461 


Hollins,  Alfred,  435 
Hood,  John  H.,  335 
Hopkins,  Edward  John,  289, 
435 

Hopkins,  Rev.  John,  271 
Holyoke,  Samuel,  301 
Hucbald,  236,  242 
Hubbard,  John,  304 
Hugg,  George  C.,  339 
Hull,  Asa,  332,  345 
Humfrey,  Pelham,  359,  434 
Hursley,  William,  287 
Hydraulic  organ,  404 
Hydraulus,  409 
Hydraulus,  Music  of,  417 
“  Hymns  Ancient  and  Modern,” 
288,  31 1 

Hymn  tunes,  Transition  to,  282 

I 

Ideae  vs.  practical,  154,  155 
Illustrative  material  in  music, 
41 

Innate,  Music  is,  174 
Instruction,  Music  means  of, 
159,  221 

Instruments  among  the  He¬ 
brews,  204,  206 

Instruments  and  early  Chris¬ 
tians,  219 

Instruments,  Development  of 
musical,  184 

Instruments  in  1000  A.  D.,  240 
Intellect  and  music,  106 
Intellectual  appeal  of  music, 
189 

Intellectual  basis  for  musical 
impression,  129 
Intellectual  side  of  music,  145 
Intervals,  72 

Inversion  of  intervals,  75 


Jubai/s  organ,  402 
Judgment,  Criteria  of — in 
church  music,  21 

K 

Keiser,  Reinhard,  358,  369 
Keller,  Helen,  104 


Keyboard,  Improvement  of,  413 
Introduction  of,  418 
Key  desk  of  pipe  organ,  386 
Kindermann,  427 
Kirkpatrick,  Wm.  J.,  334,  335, 

336,  343,  344,  348,  363 
Kurzenknabe,  J.  H.,  339 
Kyrie  eleison,  254 

L 

Lambieeotte,  Louis,  432 
Lansing,  A.  W.,  363 
Lassus,  Orlandus,  249 
Laudino,  Francesco,  421 
Lavignac,  237,  242 
Law,  Andrew,  301 
Lefebure-Wely,  L.  J.  A.,  432 
Leman,  James,  279 
Lemmens,  Nicolas  J.,  433 
Length  of  notes,  87 
Lindpainter,  375 
“  Lining  out  ”  hymns,  295,  297 
Liszt,  Franz,  139,  376 
Liturgy,  Development  of,  220 
Liturgy,  Elaboration  of,  222 
Location  of  organ,  443 
Lohengrin,  118,  121 
Lollards,  270 

Lorenz,  E.  S.,  339, .363,  381 
Lorenzo  the  Magnificent,  421 
Lowry,  Rev.  Robt.,  332,  333, 

334,  345,  363 
Luebeck  organ,  414 
Lully,  360 
Luscinius,  425 
Luther,  Martin,  29 
Luther’s  breadth  of  mind,  261 
Hymns  and  tunes,  259 
Tunes,  Character  of,  260 
Lyon,  Finley,  381 
Lyon,  James,  296,  297 

M 

MaGNIEICAT,  221 
Major  music,  Effect  of,  114 
Manner  and  quality,  Marks  of, 
92 

Manney,  Chas.  F.,  363 
Marenzio,  357 
Marot,  263,  271 


462 


INDEX 


Marston,  G.  W.,  363 
Mason,  Lowell,  23,  31,  267,  305, 
307,  311,  315,  329,  361,  362, 
363 

Matthews,  Timothy  Richard, 
289 

Mauclaire,  Camille,  no 
Maunder,  J.  H.,  379 
Mazzuchi,  Domenico,  367 
McCabe,  Chaplain  C.  C.,  346 
McCosh,  Dr.,  143 
Macfarren,  Sir  George  Alex., 
152,  287 

McGranahan,  James  H.,  306, 
348 

McPhail,  M.  L.,  363 
Means  to  an  end,  Music  as,  140 
Measures,  Musical,  89 
Mediaeval  church  music: 
Characteristics  of,  249 
Effect  of  on  modern  ears,  251 
Mehul,  Henri  Etienne,  380 
Meistersinger,  die,  281 
Melody  and  tune  compared,  76 
Melody,  Definition  of,  75 
Melody,  Development  of,  180 
Mendelssohn,  Felix,  375,  431 
Meredith,  I.  H.,  340 
Merula,  Claudio,  422 
Metrical  psalms,  271 
Metrical  version  of  the  Acts, 
275 

Michelagnolo,  367 
Miles,  Austin  R.,  349 
Ministerial  indifference,  28 
Ministerial  interest,  Decay  of, 
31 

Minister’s  responsibility,  32 
Minnesingers,  241 
Minor  music,  Effect  of,  115 
Miracle  play,  Transformation 
of,  366 

Mixtures,  64,  397 
Modern  hymn  tune,  286 
Modes  of  the  Greeks,  197 
Modulations,  81 
Monk,  William  H.,  289 
Monteverde,  423 
Moody,  Dwight  L.,  54 
Moral  character,  Music  has  no, 
135 


Morales,  357 
Morton,  Dr.  Frank,  no 
Motet  and  anthem  compared, 
353 

Motet  and  anthem.  History  of, 
353 

Motet,  Development  of,  354 
Motet,  Etymology  of,  354 
Mozart,  Wolfgang  Amadeus, 
358,  373 

Muffat,  Georg,  428 
Murray,  J.  R.,  337 
Musical  conventions,  305 
Musical  feeling  vague,  127 
Musical  means,  Study  of,  50 
Musical  pastors,  29 
Musical  sound : 

Definition  of,  60 
Force  of,  61 
Pitch  of,  61 
Timbre  of,  62 

Musical  talent  not  needed,  52 
Musical  vs.  nervous  impres¬ 
sions,  125 
Mutation,  239 

N 

Naninis,  the,  249,  357 
Naumann,  190,  246 
Negro  melodies  outgrowth  of 
Spirituals,  316 
Neidlinger,  W.  H.,  363 
Neri,  S.  Philip,  367 
Nero,  404,  418 

Nervous  appeal  of  music,  188 
Neukomm,  375 
Neumes,  231 
Nevin,  Geo.  B.,  363,  381 
New  England  psalmody,  291 
New  England  psalters,  293 
Notation : 

Development  of,  229 
Early  effort  at,  230 
Knowledge  of,  46 
Of  pitch,  83 
Nunc  Dimittis,  221 

o 

Ogden,  Wm.  A.,  337,  350,  363 


INDEX 


463 


Old  Hundredth,  158,  263,  272, 
288 

O’Kane,  Tullius  C.,  332,  344 
O’Keghem,  355 
Oratorio : 

In  America,  379 
In  England,  376 
In  France,  380 
In  Germany,  368 
In  Italy,  367 
Origin  of,  365 
What  is  an,  365 

Organ  architect,  Service  of  an, 
439 

Organ  builder,  Character  of, 
439 

Organ  composition,  Develop¬ 
ment  of,  420 
Organ  of  the  Bible,  402 
Organizing  the  mass  by  music, 
164 

Organum,  236,  242,  244 
Organum  profanum,  238 
Osiander,  Lucas,  264 
Origin  of  music : 

Bird  theory  of,  177 
Darwin’s  theory  of,  176 
Spencer’s  theory  of,  177 
Theories  all  speculative,  175 
Wallaschek’s  theory  of,  1 77 
Overtones,  62 


P 

PachexbEL  427 
Paine,  John  Knowles,  380 
Palestrina,  248,  251,  253,  357 
Palmer,  H.  R.,  306,  337,  363 
Parker,  Horatio  W.,  363,  380 
Parks,  J.  A.,  363 
Parry,  C.  Hubert  H.,  181,  198, 
237,  246,  254,  361,  378,  379 
“  Pastoral  Symphony,”  Bee¬ 
thoven’s,  128 
Patriarchal  music,  203 
Patristic  age,  Music  in  the,  218 
Paulmann,  Conrad,  424 
Peace,  Albert  Lister,  289,  435 
Pedagogical  use  of  music,  159, 
221 

Pedagogical  value  of  music,  159 


Pedal  accessories,  452 
Pedal  organ,  389 
Pedal  organ,  Stops  for,  451 
Pedals,  Invention  of,  414 
Pedals  of  pipe  organ,  387 
Pentatonic  scale  in  “  Spirituals,” 

324 

Pergolesi,  358 
Perkins,  Theo.  E.,  332,  337 
Perkins,  W.  O.,  310 
Petrie,  H.  W.,  381 
Phillips,  Philip,  332,  344,  345 
Physical  basis  of  musical  effect, 
103 

Physical  effects  of  music,  105 
Pierson,  Henry  Hugo,  378 
Pietistic  folk-song,  262,  267 
Pilgrim  Chorus,  101 
Pipe  organ : 

Description  of,  385 
Organist’s  part  in  purchasing, 
438 

Pastor’s  part  in  purchasing, 
438 

Pitch,  Musical  effect  of,  118 
Pitch,  Notation  of,  83 
Place  of  music  in  the  church, 
32,  42 

Plain  song,  270 

Plain  song  arrangements,  290 

Pleasure  produced  by  music, 

163 

Playford,  274,  296,  301 
Playford’s  Psalter,  294 
Pneumatic  action,  390,  448 
Pole,  William,  99 
Polyphony,  244 
Portative  organs,  406 
Porter,  H.  W.,  363,  381 
Positive  organs,  407 
Power  of  organ,  Control  of, 
411 

Praetorius,  423 . 

Practical  efficiency,  Need  of, 
22 

What  is,  22 
Pratt,  Waldo  S.,  33 
Pre-Christian  music,  188 
Preparing  for  message,  Music, 

164 

Program  music,  128 


464 


INDEX 


Progress  of  musical  effect,  167 
Prose,  Development  of,  244 
Protheroe,  Daniel,  363 
Psalmody,  Dark  age  of,  278 
Psalmody  in  New  England, 
291,  296 

Psalmody,  Reaction  against,  304 
Psalmody  and  hymnody  com¬ 
pared,  282 

Psalm  singing,  Opinions  about, 
292 

Psalm  tunes,  Characteristics  of, 
277 

Surviving,  278 
English,  273 
Psalters  with  tunes,  272 
Psychology  of  music,  47,  99 
Purcell,  Henry,  360,  434 
Pure  art,  Music  as,  148 
Puritan  vs.  Cavalier  in  music, 
292 

Puritan  vs.  Pilgrim  in  music, 
291 

Purpose  of  church  music,  149 


R 

Raff,  Joseph  Joachim,  376 
Range  of  human  voice,  85 
Ravenscroft,  Thomas,  274 
Raw  materials  of  music,  178 
Read,  Daniel,  301 
Reed  pipes  in  organ,  395,  404 
Reed  tone  in  organ,  39 7 
Reinken,  427 

Religious  character,  Music  has 
.no,  137 

Religious  emotions,  Expressing 

.all,  155 

Religious  value  of  music,  138 
Religious  work,  Music  in,  149, 
161 

Results  measure  of  value,  23 
Rhythm : 

Development  of,  182 
Early  prominence  of,  180 
Elements  of,  76 


Kinds  of,  77 
Musical  effect  of,  117 
Ricercari,  421,  422 
Rinck,  J.  C.  H.,  431 
Ritter,  August  Gottfried,  432 
Ritual,  Development  of,  186 
Roberts,  J.  Varley,  379 
Rodeheaver,  Homer  A.,  351 
Rogers,  James  H.,  363,  436 
Root,  Geo.  F.,  306,  310,  336, 

363 

Rossini,  368 
Rowbotham,  207,  209 

s 

Saint-Sa£ns,  Chas.  C.,  380, 432 
Sankey,  Ira  D.,  346 
Scale,  Musical : 

Chromatic,  68 
Diatonic,  65 
Finding  the,  64 
Intervals  of  diatonic,  66 
Minor,  67 
Pentatonic,  67 

Relative  importance  of  notes 
in,  66 

Transposition  of,  69 
Whole  step,  68 
Scarlatti,  358,  368 
Scheidemann,  Heinrich,  427 
Scheidt,  Samuel,  426 
Schlemmer,  427 
Schlick,  Arnold,  425 
Schnecker,  P.  A.,  362,  381 
Schneider,  Hans,  105,  115 
Schubert,  Franz,  116,  374 
Schuetz,  Heinrich,  368,  423 
Schumann,  128 
Scottish  Psalter,  275 
Seagar’s  Psalter,  273 
Sebastiani,  Johann,  369 
Seidl,  Anton,  102 
Senfi,  Ludwig,  255 
Sensory  nervous  system,  Effect 
of  music  on,  104 
Sequence,  Development  of,  244 
Seward,  Theo.  F.,  363 
Sharps  and  flats,  85 
Shelley,  Harry  Rowe,  362 
Sherwin,  Wm.  F.,  31 1,  332,  363 


INDEX 


465 


Singing  societies  in  New  Eng¬ 
land,  295 

Smart,  Henry,  289,  435 
Social  value  of  training,  42 
Solo  organ,  389 
Southard,  L.  H.,  310 
Space  needed  for  organ,  445 
Speaks,  Oley,  363 
Specifications,  Checking  up,  453 
Need  of  full,  442 
Speed,  Notation  of,  91 
Spence,  Wm.  R.,  363 
Spencer,  Herbert,  177 
Spiritual  results,  25 
“  Spirituals,”  American : 

Body  of  lost,  315 
Characteristics  of,  318 
Examples  of,  319 
Good  church  music,  327 
History  of,  314 
Influence  of,  327 
Minor  element  in,  325 
Negro  melodies  come  from, 
316 

Number  of,  317 
Origin  and  spread  of,  317 
Pentatonic  scale  in,  324 
Spiritual  songs  in  early  church, 
216,  217,  218,  219 
Spohr,  Louis,  374 
Spontaneity  in  music,  133 
Squarcialupo,  Antonio,  421 
Staff,  Development  of,  231 
Stainer,  Sir  John,  203,  289,  361, 
379,  435 

Standards  in  church  music,  153 
Stanford,  361 
Stebbins,  Geo.  C.,  348 
Steggall,  Chas.,  289 
Sternhold  and  Hopkins,  271 
Sternhold  and'  Hopkins’  Psalter, 
278,  293 

Stickney,  John,  301 
Stimulating  character  of  music, 
109 

Stockton,  Rev.  J.  H.,  335,  344 
Stopped  pipes  in  organ,  403 
Stops,  Invention  of,  412 
Selecting,  448 
Stradella,  368 
String  tone  in  organ,  397 


Strype,  272 

Substituting  related  emotions, 
169 

Sullivan,  Arthur  S.,  289,  378 
Sunday-school  music: 

Abroad,  340 

Effect  of  Gospel  Song  on, 
338 

New  style  of,  330 
Super-modern  style  of,  339 
Western  development  of,  336 
Sunday-school  Song,  328 
Sunday-school  song  books,  Ear¬ 
liest,  328 

Swan,  Timothy,  301 
Sweelinck,  Jan  P.,  423,  433 
Swell  organ,  388 
Swell  organ,  Stops  for,  450 
Sweeney,  John  R.,  334,  335,  348, 

363 

T 

Tabeature,  422 

Talent,  Musical — not  needed,  52 
Tallis,  Thomas,  249,  273,  274, 
357,  359,  433 

Tannhauser,  101,  102,  121 
Tansur,  William,  274,  296 
Te  Deum  Laudamus,  221 
Telemann,  Geo.  Philip,  371 
Therapeutic  value  of  music,  143 
Time,  Notation  of,  87 
Timotheus,  412 
Toccata,  422 
Tomer,  W.  G.,  31 1 
Tone  colour,  Control  of,  63 
Towne,  T.  Martin,  363 
Towner,  D.  B.,  349 
Tracker  action,  390,  447 
Transition  to  hymn  tunes,  303 
Treading  the  bellows,  409,  410 
Troubadours,  240 
Tubular-pneumatic  action,  448 
Tye,  Dr.  Christopher,  275,  359, 
433 

u 

Unconscious  musical  impulse, 
179 

Unmusical  ministers,  55 


466 


INDEX 


V 

Vail,  S.  J.,  332,  345 

Van  Eycken,  Simon,  433 
Van  Noordt,  Anthony,  433 
Varied  quality  of  tone,  Secur¬ 
ing,  412 
Verdelot,  357 

Vernacular  hymns  in  Germany, 

253,  255 

Vincent,  Chas.  J.,  435 
Virgin  Mary,  Songs  to,  253 
Voicing  of  organ,  440 
von  Rheinberger,  Joseph  Ga¬ 
briel,  432 

w 

Wagner,  Richard,  ioi,  118, 
128,  136 

Wainwright,  John,  287 
Wallascheck,  Richard,  102,  119, 
177 

Walmisley,  361 
Walter,  Rev.  Thos.,  296 
Walther,  Johann,  258 
Ward,  Samuel  A.,  311 
Waters,  Horace,  330 
Watts,  Isaac,  279,  281,  282 
Webbe,  Samuel,  287 
Webb,  George  J.,  306,  310 
Weldon,  360 


Wesleyan  stimulus  to  hymn 
tunes,  283 
Wesley,  John,  282 
Wesley,  Samuel,  435 
Wesley,  Samuel  Sebastian,  288, 
361,  435 
West,  361 

Whitney,  W.  W.,  338 
Widor,  Chas.  Marie,  432 
Willaert,  Adrian,  249,  357,  359, 
421 

Williams,  Aaron,  275,  296 
Willis,  Richard  Storrs,  128,  167 
Wilson,  Ira  B.,  340,  363,  381 
Wise,  360 

Wittingham,  W.,  276 
Woltz,  Johann,  426 
Woodbury,  Isaac  B.,  306,  310, 
329,  363 

Wordsworth,  Bishop,  283 
Workmanship  on  organ,  440 
Worship?  What  is,  167 
Wycliffites,  270 


Y 

Yon,  Pedro,  436 


Z 

Zeuner,  Heinrich  C.,  310 


Printed  in  the  United  States  0/  America 


' 


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